Biography

Benton H Wilcoxon is an accomplished American entrepreneur with a world-class talent for integrating new material technologies into revolutionary products. He has founded upwards of 10 companies to commercialize new products, most notably Ashurst Technology Ltd (Ashurst) and Composite Technology Corporation (CTC). As the head of Ashurst, he identified and was the first to develop and commercialize aluminum scandium alloys for aerospace, marine and sports equipment applications. Wilcoxon founded CTC to develop and commercialize the world's most efficient conductor for high voltage transmission lines. To date 60,000 kilometers of this game changing technology has been deployed on 550 projects across 50 countries. End users include some of the largest utilities in the world including American Electric Power in the USA, National Grid in the UK and State Grid in China. 

Benton is the founder of NextMetals, a developer of propriety advanced materials technology that has created unique performance properties in light-weight super strong and super tough metals and ceramics for applications in aerospace, aircraft, performance vehicles, subsea applications, lightweight armor systems, high speed trains, etc. NextMetals is inn testing on the next generation lightest, strongest aluminum scandium alloys, as well as high performance nano-structured titanium and super-steels for particular use in aerospace, aviation, subsea, and transportation markets.  

Benton was born in 1949 to chemical engineer Benton Hartung Wilcoxon and his wife Marguerite Chimits, who met and married in Europe at the close of WWII. They settled in Huntsville, Alabama, to set up a new chemical processing plant using an old military facility on Redstone Arsenal and created Randolph School, which remains the top private school K-12 in the region. There, Benton was schooled alongside several of the Von Braun rocket scientists' children. Since the family was close to the German scientists and the chemical facility was near the site where the Jupiter and Saturn rockets were developed, Benton was given an opportunity to closely witness many of the early engine static test firings as well as to see some of the latest technologies, such as the first solar cells used in the satellites and rockets. His father owned and operated a sophisticated machine tool facility to make precision components for the aerospace industry, which allowed Benton an early and opportune access to novel metal alloys and component designs. When he was young, his father created an indoor ice rink facility for winter sports, which provided the family lots of work and opportunity to keep fit and engage in sports. The city later named a large municipal Iceplex after his father.  

Benton attended Tulane University before working on a private project to make the first computerized gas chromatograph mass spectrometer at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. From there, he went on to create Excalibur Video Systems, the first post production studio in Hollywood with the capacity to edit 35mm film on videotape. His studio edited One From The Heart (1982) for Francis Ford Coppola, and created a trailer for the original Star Wars (1977). He then formed Alpha Research to utilize new ICP Spectroscopy techniques to analyze rare earths and precious metals in complex ore matrices and develop them for client firms' extractive metallurgical processes.  

In 1991, Wilcoxon founded Ashurst Technology, and negotiated the first ever joint-venture with the Institute for Problems of Materials Science (IPMS), which is part of the renowned Ukrainian Academy of Science. The joint-venture was formalized in August of that same year, just a few days after Ukraine's Independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the first materials that Wilcoxon managed to obtain from previously secret Soviet technologies was the use of scandium, which was added in small quantities to aluminum to act as a grain refiner to make vastly superior aluminum alloys. At Ashurst, he patented several advanced materials, including novel improved commercial aluminum scandium alloys, since earlier versions were classified Soviet materials and only used in defense components and aerospace structures. Ashurst acquired and operated a scandium extraction operation at an iron mine in Zhovti Vody, Ukraine, which employed over 1,000 people. 

Ashurst produced scandium oxide, aluminum scandium master alloy, aluminum scandium alloys, and weld wire. Its patented aluminum scandium alloy was the strongest, most plastic, weld-able aluminum alloy ever made, which produced the finest castings and extrusions. Aluminum scandium alloys are now used for everything from aerospace, automotive, cell phone/laptop bodies, shipbuilding, and high-performance sports equipment. Ashurst developed and patented new weld wires made from its aluminum scandium alloys, which it produced and later licensed to Indalco Alloys of Ontario, Canada. Due to its superior casting properties, Ashurst licensed Cercast, an aerospace investment castings manufacturer, to use its castable aluminum scandium alloys. Ashurst signed a development agreement with Raufoss Hydro Automotive Research Centre in Norway to develop automotive components that would benefit from the alloy's superior properties.

In 1994, Ashurst engaged in trials for its patented aluminum scandium alloys with Northrup Grumman for Naval superstructures in which Reynolds Aluminum was licensed to make the required sheet materials. Due to its superior stress corrosion and resistance to fatigue cycles, Ashurst negotiated an agreement with McDonnell Douglas Aerospace for use in its 7000 Series aluminum scandium alloys in aerospace structures and components. This deal was subsequently canceled after McDonnell Douglas was acquired by Boeing due to a Board of Directors mandate to focus on carbon composites.  

Ashhurst's first big commercial success was in sports equipment, when Easton Sports licensed the technology in 1997 and bought extruded tubes of its aluminum scandium alloy from the Ashurst supply chain for use in manufacturing a new bat known as the Redline series, which quickly became the highest performing baseball and softball bats. "The success of Easton is built on innovating and developing new, better performing products," said Jim Easton, Easton's Chairman. "Our company considers the use of Ashurst's high strength aluminum-scandium alloys the most significant development in bat technology since we first introduced aluminum bats to the market in the early 1970's. We have been able to achieve unprecedented strength increases which has enabled our design engineers to produce bats with thinner walls, less weight, greater trampoline effect and simply better performance. It is fitting that the introduction of Redline C-Core bats represents the most significant product launch in Easton's history."

Immediately after announcement and demonstration at the sports dealers' exhibition in Atlanta in 1997, the entire year's production was sold out within 2 days at the highest price ever offered for an aluminum bat. The ultra-strong alloy could be made very thin without stress fractures which allowed a spring effect upon collision with the high-speed ball, resulting in the ball traveling a greater distance and with higher placement accuracy. Lacrosse sticks, hockey sticks, racing bicycle tubes and handlebars, ski poles, ski bindings, and many other sports equipment components were then produced and marketed with Ashurst's new alloy. Thousands of metric tons of the new aluminum scandium alloy were produced and sold.

STX licensed and bought extrusions to make lacrosse and hockey sticks from the alloy, and various other companies made ski bindings and skies from the alloy. Smith & Wesson made lightweight revolvers such as the 386 Nightguard and the 386 Sc/S from Ashurst's alloy. 

In conjunction with IPMS from the Ukrainian Academy of Science, Ashurst developed Ticad, which is a high temperature castable titanium di-silicide alloy for use in combustion engine applications and subsequently entered into advanced negotiations with Detroit Diesel. In 1997, Ashurst signed a contract with United Technologies Research Center, funded by DARPA, for the development of ultra-lightweight, high temperature porous titanium. This low-cost ingot metallurgy process allows for the introduction of porosity into the micro structures of titanium thereby lowering the density while maintaining many of the important properties of the material. Additionally, several super hard and wear resistant materials were developed for various commercial applications.  

In 2002, Wilcoxon collaborated with partners to start Element 21, which made the finest golf club shafts from Ashurst's aluminum-scandium. These clubs are still used by several PGA and LPGA players, since they combine the advantages of the lightness and flex of carbon fiber shafts with the precision torque control of steel shafts. 

In 2002 discussions began with the Russian Space Agency for the use of Aluminum scandium alloys in the International Space Station. Later in November 2006, Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin used an Element 21 aluminum-scandium shaft and iron to hit a golf ball while tethered to the outside of the International Space Station, one of several tasks performed by Expedition 14, creating the longest golf drive in history. NASA was able to track this gold-plated golf ball as it orbited earth. 

Finmeccanica, Avio, and Airbus, as well as the German aluminum producer Aleris were introduced to aluminum scandium alloys, and after some time in testing, began to use aluminum scandium alloys in several of its plane models' doors and door frames, since those complex structures require high strength and resistance to metal fatigue. Recently Airbus created a new division known as APWORKS, which 3D prints aluminum scandium alloy components, which they call Scalmalloy. In 2017, they premiered the new 3D printed bulkhead partitions for the 320/320neo aircraft, which allowed considerable weight savings along with superior structural design strength. Avio began 3D printing a niobium titanium aluminide blade for the low-pressure section of a jet engine and was then acquired by GE.

After association with the Russian Space Agency and NASA, Wilcoxon and his partners met with the European Space Agency to discuss the use of Scandium in their programs. That lead them to create Scandium 4 Aerospace, an Italian company with agreements that prepared new lightweight alloys and set up the first system for the 3D printing of metals at CIRA, the Italian Research Center which is part of the Italian Space Agency. There they created the first Aluminum Scandium spherical micro-powders for use in Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing), which of course is now done by Airbus for several components. Scandium 4 Aerospace won an UK award for innovative technology in 2013. 

Wilcoxon founded Composite Technology Corporation, "CTC", in 2001 in Southern California, in order to create the world's most energy efficient conductor cable for high voltage transmission lines. They invented ACCC, Aluminum Conductor Composite Core, which was patented and produced in Irvine, California and is now deployed in over 60,000 kilometers of powerlines in 550 projects across 50 countries. The key advantage was that the new conductor allowed operators to either save energy through less line losses or significantly increase the amount of power on an existing tower system without having to obtain a new right-of-way for a costly new system. To accurately highlight and illustrate the economic and performance advantages of ACCC, Wilcoxon created a highly sophisticated calculator program which allowed one to impute the unique characteristics of a particular line location and compare the energy and cost savings of using ACCC product vs any other conductor product in the world. This marketing tool is still the key to the successful marketing of a novel critical product in a very conservative industry. To further strengthen its product warranty, Wilcoxon developed an extended warranty underwritten by a special Lloyds insurance broker. CTC was a public company listed on the OTCBB, and is now a private company known as CTC Global.

On the 9th of November 2017, nearly ten years after filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Mercury Cable and Energy, the defendant admitted in a stipulated judgment that they had infringed on CTC's patents and acknowledged the validity of the CTC patent portfolio. The issue started in 2006, when a few individuals and former consultants who are known today as Mercury Cable and Energy, took proprietary information from CTC and soon thereafter launched a campaign claiming they had valid patents and that CTC's patents were invalid. Furthermore, they launched a vicious media campaign to discredit the company and Wilcoxon as its founder, including the filing of a shareholder derivative lawsuit which was thrown out after it was determined that Mercury management had paid someone to file the lawsuit with zero basis or merit. When that effort to destroy failed they launched a website, from outside the USA, known as 'firebentonwilcoxon.com' citing various actions filed against the company and Wilcoxon, all of which were dismissed in court as having no basis. The patent infringement lawsuit filed by CTC continued, complicated by the fact that the worldwide 2008 economic crisis caused the collapse of most of the orders for CTC's advanced wind turbine technology, since its customers and wind farm operators all relied upon the Lehman Brothers tax equity financing which had suddenly collapsed. In a suspiciously sudden move after communicating with Mercury, a lender to CTC suddenly served a loan default notice due to a minor loan covenant violation, which forced CTC to file for Chapter 11. The CTC cable business now continues as a private company, CTC Global, with sales and cable installations around the world.  

While at CTC, Wilcoxon acquired DeWind GmbH, a German wind turbine company which had created the first carbon spar blades and an excellent 50Hz 2MW turbine. Wilcoxon chose to initiate a new and groundbreaking design which would use a variable speed gearbox/transmission so that the varying wind speeds would allow the generator to be turned at a constant speed which allowed for a synchronous high voltage generator to deliver high voltage AC power directly to the grid, without problematic rectifier/inverter power conversion systems. The systems could deliver reactive power and act the same to the grid as a standard steam or gas turbine generator system. 

In December of 2007, one of its first new D8.2 turbines set a world record as the highest installed turbine in the world at 4,110 meters (13,484 feet) at Barrick Gold's Veladero mine in the Argentine Andes. The 229 metric ton structure stands at just over 60 meters high and its 2 Megawatt turbine was designed to endure extreme cold, heavy snowfall and high winds, which top 222 kilometers per hour. This feat earned it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

  

DeWind set up production in Austin, Texas and delivered a 60Hz version for the North American market and its orders progressed nicely until the collapse of Lehman Brothers which had provided essentially all of the critical tax equity financing for DeWind's customers which, in turn, triggered cancellation of all orders in the US. Wilcoxon quickly orchestrated a sale of the company to Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which still produces the novel wind turbine.  

Wilcoxon is now developing a new "nano-structured titanium" with superior strength and elongation properties for aerospace, subsea, and defense applications, as well as the next generation "aluminum scandium alloys" for use in aerospace components and structures, as well as jet engine components, using many of his old scientific team in Kyiv, Ukraine. These materials are also designed for 3D printing using both wire and spherical micro-powders. Letters of intent have been signed to use the companies advanced materials in defense systems and commercial jet engines. Both projects are now beginning the commercialization phase, with the first prototypes for the companies in production and scheduled for advanced testing and certification.

Benton has three wonderful daughters, Sasha, Kumara, and Cristiana. Whenever possible, he enjoys spending time with his daughters and precocious grandsons, Cruz and Jet. Benton loves music and the arts and is a talented improvisational composer on the piano and keyboards.