About Us

Techevon was founded in March 2008

as a company that would offer consulting services to Anodizers with the goal to improve their productivity. During the early phase of the business it became apparent that there was a good business opportunity to develop products particularly dyes that were made specifically to meet anodizers expectations. Techevon recognized that most of the productivity improvements were dependent on customers using the right products for their applications and matching the anodizing conditions including racking to enhance productivity.

Recognizing this void of making products specifically for anodizing Techevon decided to become a manufacturing supplier to the business. Whereas most suppliers if not all dedicated their efforts in sourcing products and blending them as required, Techevon emphasized to develop products to meet specific needs and developed molecules and blends that gave unique properties that our customers enjoy today.

Pinakin Patel , who started Techevon has the unique experience of working in Anodizing plants as well as a supplier to anodizers. His experience, as the Vice-President of Pioneer Metal Finishing the largest job shop anodizer in the US allows him to understand all of the expectations of large anodizers and their customers.

As an Industry Line Manager for Clariant he had the opportunity to run the North American Metal Finishing business for Clariant where he was responsible for the development of the entire product line for Clariant. His contribution to Clariant involved patents on environmentally friendly sealing systems for anodizing and interference coloring of anodized aluminum.

At Techevon, all of this experience has resulted in products, specifically dyes for anodizing aluminum that are industry leading in performance. Techevon compliments this with customer service that allows our customers to run their dye tanks at greater than 85% efficiency.

At Techevon we pride ourselves in product development and product enhancement. Our Research and Development includes new products and improvements to existing products. This effort has resulted in several new molecules some of which have been TSCA registered for sales in the US. Our current effort is to develop dyes that can be sealed using hot DI water, thus mitigating the need for Nickel sealing.

TECHEVON LEADERSHIP BIOS

Pinakin Patel

Title: Founder & President

Location: Lancaster, SC

  • Prior to starting Techevon, Pinakin served as Vice-President of Technology at Pioneer Metal Finishing Corporation. His emphasis was to introduce new products and processes that complement the business, helping Pioneer Metal Finishing harness more value from their existing customer base.
  • Before joining Pioneer, Pinakin was the Industry Line Director of the Metals Business at the Clariant Corporation. Pinakin was awarded multiple patents on new methods of coloring and sealing technologies that used environmentally friendly chemistry. His industry-leading work on sealing became the basis of further work in the trade, resulting in more environmentally friendly products that are rapidly replacing older technologies. He has published papers in several magazines and has participated on various boards for discussions on technical issues.
  • Pinakin has a Bachelor and Masters degree in Chemical Engineering. He began his career at Haviland Chemical Company in Grand Rapids, MI where he worked on chemistry for finishing aluminum. At Haviland, Pinakin developed a number of leading chemistries for anodizing and was a founding member of the Aluminum Anodizing Council.

Tej Patel

Title: Director

Location: Chicago IL

  • Tej has over has over 10 years of consulting and industry experience specializing in the areas of supply chain, operations improvement and manufacturing. Prior to joining Techevon, he was a Vice President at AlixPartners, a leading global consulting firm.  As part of the supply chain and operations practice, he led a number of cost savings and efficiency initiatives among a variety of manufacturers. 
  • Additionally, Tej has held positions at Baxter Inc., a Fortune 150 medical products manufacturer, and Archstone Consulting.  While at Archstone Consulting, he led multiple client teams and projects in the areas of plant floor operations, LEAN manufacturing, and supply chain improvements across several industries.
  • Tej holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, with concentrations in Operations, Strategy, and Marketing in addition to a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. 

Archana Sonejee

Title: R&D Engineer

Location: Chicago IL

  • Archana joined Techevon as a R&D Chemical Engineer in February 2019 and has operational and research responsibilities. She performs laboratory studies and tests on pilot plant scale for company's product formulations, processes and product application according to customer needs. She developed trouble shooting skills, root cause analysis skills by working with bench-top and pilot scale equipment in a unit operations laboratory at school.
  • Archana received her Master of Science and Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Mumbai University, India respectively. She has lab experience working as a research trainee at Hindustan Unilever Research Limited.

Mahe Chandrasekaran

Title: R&D Engineer

Location: Lancaster, SC

  • Mahe joined Techevon as a R&D Process Engineer in January 2019. She received her M.S in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. As a graduate student, she worked in the Department of Chemical Engineering as a Research Assistant, and her work focused on the development of new techniques in the treatment of oily wastewater.
  • She has her Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering in India, and has experience working as an Intern in the KCC paint industry and Greenvironment Innovation & Marketing India (P) Ltd. performing Research & Development studies.

Jose Venegas

Title: Lab Technician

Location: Chicago, IL

  • Jose has worked in multiple lab environments including pharmaceutical and chemical.
  • He also has extensive experience in lab instrumentation and diagnostic testing.