Meet the Team
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Thomas C Holcombe 

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Holcombe is an owner and CEO of Advanced Carbon Products, LLC. He was previously commercial director at Engelhard Corporation, where he had P&L responsibility for a $200 million global business providing mobile emission catalysts for heavy-duty diesel, motorcycles and small engines.
 
From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Holcombe was President and CEO of EnviRes LLC, a start-up company created to develop the HyMelt® gasification process. In the early 90s, Dr. Holcombe was President of American Biotherm Company, a technology development and licensing company focused on evaporative drying and solvent extraction. Earlier, Dr. Holcombe was an associate director of technology with Union Carbide Corporation, where his department developed, designed and licensed petrochemical processes to Amoco Oil, Exxon, Shell Oil, Texaco, and over 30 other licensees around the world. His first job after college was in the International Division for Asia and Latin America at Procter & Gamble. 

Dr. Holcombe has a B.S. in chemical engineering, an MBA and a DPS (Doctor of Professional Studies) in Operations Research and international business. He received Professional Engineer licenses in New York and New Jersey, has authored numerous papers and is an inventor in 14 U.S. patents.

Donald P. Malone, RIP

Vice President and Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Malone was the founder, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Advanced Carbon Products, LLC. He had a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Kentucky, and 30 years experience in R&D and refinery operations with Ashland Petroleum and Marathon Ashland Petroleum. During this period he served as Assistant Technical Manager and Technical Manager for the H-Coal direct coal liquefaction plant, a $300 million coal liquefaction pilot plant; as a research, process and project engineer; and as a plant manager.
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Mr. Malone retired from Marathon Ashland Petroleum in 2000 as Senior Research Associate. He was an inventor of 25 U.S. patents. He was a licensed professional engineer and a member of AICHE, with several publications to his credit.  He passed away on May 22, 2019.

Chris Boyer

President

Mr. Boyer is an owner and President of Advanced Carbon Products, LLC. He had a long and successful career with Marathon Petroleum Company (formerly Ashland Petroleum Company) over a span of 25 years. He held positions in business management, marketing, sales, quality control, operations and research. One of his recent positions was Product Manager of Marathon's global petroleum pitch business with annual sales of over $100 million. Prior to that, he was Director of Marketing in Ashland's Carbon Fiber Division. Early in his career at Ashland, Mr. Boyer supervised the operation of a carbon fiber manufacturing plant and a synthetic fuels research pilot plant.
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Mr. Boyer has a B.S. in Physical and Biological Oceanography from the University of South Carolina and has completed many graduate courses in business management. He is an inventor in eight U.S. patents and has authored many publications and presentations in the petroleum pitch and carbon fiber industries.

John W. Newman

Senior Technical Adviser

Mr. Newman is an owner and Senior Technical Advisor in Advanced Carbon Products, LLC. He earned the degree of Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He has over forty years of experience in R&D and management in several leadership positions with Ashland Petroleum Company, including Sr. Research Engineer, Group Leader, Manager of Process and Product Research, and Vice President of the Carbon Fibers Division. He is an inventor in nine U.S. patents in the areas of petrochemicals, carbon fibers and specialty graphite. 
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Mr. Newman has served on numerous technical boards and committees, including the Materials Technical Advisory Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Export Administration; Advisory Board, American Carbon Society; Advisory Board, Center for Applied Energy Research, University of Kentucky; Board of Advisors, Center of Excellence for Quality, Kentucky State University; and Board of Directors, Software Valley Corporation of West Virginia, Southwest Chapter. 

Following his retirement from Ashland Petroleum Company, Mr. Newman established a consulting business in the area of carbon technology. He is a member of AICHE, SAE, and ASTM. ​

Donald M. Lee

Chief Engineer

MMr. Lee is an owner and Chief Engineer in Advanced Carbon Products, LLC. He is also the founder and owner of Lee Technology, Inc., which provides consultation on R&D projects in chemical, refining and fiber industries. He worked for seven years in the Carbon Fibers Division of Ashland Petroleum, where he was an Engineering Group Leader. Prior to that, he was Group Leader in Ashland Petroleum's research pilot plant. Earlier in his career, he worked for Union Carbide Corporation's R&D department for 15 years, where he was involved in many different projects, including the development of a process for the catalytic dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene. Prior to joining Union Carbide, he worked for the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. 
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Mr. Lee has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and has completed graduate courses in Industrial Engineering, Marketing and Management. He is an inventor in seven U.S. patents and is a Fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. ​

T. Morgan Ward Jr, Esq.
Legal Counsel

Chief Legal Counsel

Morgan Ward is a member of Stites & Harbison PLLC and focuses his practice on business litigation, including contracts and real estate related litigation. He is a graduate of Davidson College with B.A. in economics (1985), and the University of Kentucky College of Law (1989). He joined Stites & Harbison in 1989 and has handled a variety of federal and state court litigation matters involving the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, various types of contractual disputes, and litigation connected with the expansion of Louisville's International Airport. He is an AV-rated lawyer, the highest designation awarded by Martindale-Hubbell, and was listed in the Kentucky Super Lawyers 2007 magazine for excellence in commercial litigation. 
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Mr. Ward is a 2003 graduate of the Leadership Kentucky program. In 2002, he was recognized by Business First as one of 40 under Forty" business leaders in Louisville. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy and the Legal Aid Society, where he is a past board chair. He is a past member of the Louisville Bar Association (2006-2008) and the Metropolitan Housing Coalition. Mr Ward resides in Louisville, Kentucky. ​

Richard D. Stone, Esq.

Patent Counsel

Richard Stone, Patent Attorney, is in private practice limited to patents and intellectual property. He is a graduate of Tulane University with a BS ChE ((1966) and a ]D, cum laude, from the Loyola University of Chicago (1974). He began his professional career as a chemical engineer, for Universal Oil Products, doing refinery startup work in England, Spain and France. After becoming a patent attorney, he was a Patent Attorney for Citgo, then a Senior Patent Attorney at Mobil (retired) and Patent Counsel for Ashland Petroleum (retired). 
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He has obtained hundreds of patents for others and is the inventor of several patents from his refining days. He is a member of AICHE and the Virginia Bar. He resides in New Orleans, Louisiana.