ASTI Business Leadership

Max Lewis, President & CEO

Max Lewis has over 37 years of industrial experience commercializing product and process innovations, having held a variety of positions in marketing, sales technical service, engineering, R&D, and manufacturing support at Conoco Chemicals, DuPont Titanium Technologies, and The Sherwin-Williams Company.  Max retired from Sherwin-Williams in July 2014 after serving as the company’s Vice President – Global Innovation (Corporate) and Vice President - R&D, Latin America Group.   In these roles, Max was responsible for managing several joint development partnerships in China, and for setting product and technology strategies for the company's operations in Mexico, Central America, and South America.   Prior to these assignments, Max chaired the company’s Innovation Council composed of the vice presidents of marketing and technical from each of the company’s operating divisions, while serving as Vice President – R&D directing the long-term research, product development, and commercialization efforts for the company’s North American divisions serving the architectural market segments.  Previous to working for Sherwin-Williams, Max held market development and marketing roles with DuPont Titanium Technologies (now Chemours) where he directed the development and commercialization of several new TiO2 pigments.  Max holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University, and an MBA from Phillips University.  Max was Valedictorian of his graduating class from the College of Engineering & Technology.

Max also has over 17 years of experience serving on non-profit and for-profit boards.  Max served as President of the Board of Directors of PRA International located in London, UK until its merger with Pera International in 2009.  He now serves on Pera International’s board.  Max also served on the Board of Advisors for CERAMATEC, a privately held advanced materials technology company located in Salt Lake City, UT, until the company was acquired by CoorsTek in 2011.  He also served on the Board of Directors for the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) from 2011 – 2014.  Max currently serves on the Advancement Council for the University of Akron’s College of Business, and on the Board of Directors for AlSher Titania LLC, a privately held nanomaterials technology company, and PureColor Inc, a privately held liquid coatings solution provider.

Gary Doll, Ph.D., Chief Technical Advisor

  • Director, Timken Engineered Surfaces Laboratories, Timken Professor of Surface Engineering at The University of Akron
  • Chief Technologist of Tribology - Timken Company: global R&D activities in tribology, lubrication, surface engineering
  • Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics, University of Kentucky
  • Postdoctoral fellow in Physics at MIT
  • General Motors Research Laboratories - research in thin film coatings, surface engineering and tribology
​​Jim Feder, Director, Business Development
        Jim Feder has over thirty (30) years of strategic business development experience addressing the complex needs of the manufacturing sector.  Jim’s sales and business development experience spans across a number of high-tech and traditional industrial segments where he has been able to help companies identify and articulate their unmet needs.  Jim stands eager and ready to help guide all interested stakeholders through the Akron Surface Technologies’ discovery process.