Lead-battery ancillary firm Abertax has appointed professor Joseph Cilia as the chairman of the Abertax Foundation.
Cilia, who started at the Abertax Group in 2003 as its CEO and R&D director, replaces Dr. Martin Florin who has reduced his role to deputy chairman, prior to retiring.
Abertax Group’s main products are safety valves for the VRLA lead-battery industry and electronic components such as sensors and battery management systems.
Cilia is also a professor at the University of Malta. He has published more than 100 papers in international conferences and his research interests are on high-speed drive systems, electrical transport, energy storage systems, efficient use of energy and renewables.
The company has also made KD Merz a member of the council at Abertax Technologies.
Merz joined the Abertax group in 2008 as a technical consultant and adviser for the battery industry, before rising to the position of vice-president of technology and becoming a member of the Abertax Executive Board.
He works with the R&D team to design and develop products for the energy storage market.
Merz said: “My main expertise is certainly in lead-acid batteries, and most of the products developed and manufactured by Abertax are to be used in the lead-acid battery business.
“But with our highly skilled engineering team we expanded our development and today we produce new products in the area of energy generation and energy storage as well.
“In particular, based on our know-how of lead-acid, the latest new development is a lithium battery system which includes a sophisticated battery management system that will offer innovative advantages in motive power applications and small EV’s”.
