Akoustis Appoints Former Grant Thornton, CEO, J. Michael McGuire, to Its Board of Directors

Akoustis Technologies, Inc, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced today that it has appointed J. Michael McGuire, CPA, as a new member of its board of directors. The appointment brings the total number of board members to seven. Mr. McGuire will serve on the Board’s Nominating Committee and as chair of the Company’s new IT Governance Committee.

Jerry Neal, Co-Chairman of the board at Akoustis, commented, “Mike is an incredibly accomplished business executive and respected corporate leader who brings a wealth of experience to Akoustis. His tremendous insight, experience and stature will be a great asset to both our Board and management team.”

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Mr. McGuire, age 61, served as CEO at Grant Thornton, LLP (“GT”) from 2014 to 2019, where during that tenure, the firm posted record revenue and earnings. He is credited with transforming the structure of the company focusing on talent, technology, infrastructure, and growth. Prior to becoming CEO, McGuire served on the firm’s senior leadership team as national managing partner of operations and previously was managing partner of the firm’s Carolinas practice. He joined Grant Thornton in 2002 after a 20-year career at Arthur Andersen. He has significant experience in capital markets transactions ranging from venture capital to IPOs and has advised numerous companies on M&A strategies, due diligence and deal structure. He has served on more than 35 community boards during his career. Mr. McGuire received a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, Accounting and Management Information Systems, from Bowling Green University in 1982.

Mr. McGuire commented, “Having followed Akoustis since its inception in 2014, I have been impressed with both the growth of the Company and the strategic decisions made by its board and management. Akoustis has a compelling opportunity to be a meaningful player in the fast-growing high-band BAW RF filter market. I am excited to join the board and look forward to working with Jerry Neal, Jeff Shealy and the entire Akoustis board and management team in creating and driving shareholder value.”

Jeff Shealy, CEO and founder of Akoustis, stated, “I am thrilled to have Mike join our board as his business savvy as well as his relationships in the business community make him a valuable board member and advocate for Akoustis. He brings a wealth of knowledge in board governance matters including Sarbanes-Oxley and SEC reporting and will be instrumental in advising Akoustis as it seeks to transition to high-volume manufacturing driving revenue growth over the next several years.”

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Akoustis’ high frequency, high performance XBAW process and filters are experiencing growing interest as the Company plans to enter production in multiple markets in calendar 2020, including 5G network infrastructure, high-band WiFi and the phased-array radar applications.

Akoustis has added 14 filters to its product catalog including a 5.6 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.2 GHz WiFi filter, a 5.5 GHz WiFi-6E filter, three small cell 5G network infrastructure filters including two Band n77 filters and one Band n79 filter, a 3.8 GHz filter and five S-Band filters for defense phased-array radar applications, a 3.6 GHz filter for the CBRS 5G infrastructure market and a C-Band filter for the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) market. The Company is also developing several new filters for the sub-7 GHz bands targeting 5G mobile device, network infrastructure, WiFi CPE and defense markets.