ABOUT US

Paul Hammerstrom

PRINCIPAL

My “real” design engineering career started after a stint at Pratt & Whitney. I spent some time at Pratt & Whitney doing thermodynamic and fluid dynamic analysis on jet engines and jet engine test cells. After working for Pratt and Whitney I took a job working for one of my childhood heroes Horst Leitner. Under Horsts mentoring I began to learn that the beauty in engineering is creating simple efficient designs. At his company, AMP research, I mainly worked on improving the design of their mountain bike disc brake system.

In 1998 I took a job with Cannondale Corporation working on designing disc brake systems for their internal brand CODA. I worked on designing a low cost 25,000 unit/year disc brake assembly. I was also responsible for doing up front simulation and field data collection as well as working with the testing department to insure that all the designs met and passed international  testing standards. The real reason I took the job at Cannondale, was to work in the motorsports division. It wasn’t long before I was working in the motorsports division. Another engineer and I were tapped with designing a high end racing ATV from the ground up. We went from napkin sketch to prototype in four months. There is so much that I learned doing this project  that it would take a book to fill. I worked on all aspects of off road vehicle design from engine development, to frame development, international standards, etc..

After the ATV was in production, I became the Engineering manager for the motorsports division. In this position I spearheaded several initiatives that helped steer the company in some positive directions. After Cannondale, I worked for FOX Racing Shox. At FOX helped organize the engineering department, enforced adherence to ASME Y 14.5 geometric  tolerancing, and set up the product data management system.

Currently I own and operate Paul Hammerstrom Design. We specialize in product design with an emphasis on the detailed engineering side of “design”.

Zoran Sekulovski

ENGINEERING MANAGER

Zoran is our Swiss Army knife. He has so many skills to draw from. He brings to the table years of experience doing complex mechanical engineering design work for the automotive industry, linear static and nonlinear contact FEA simulations. He is a talented degreed Mechanical Engineer with an artistic side. There aren’t many people that can bridge the gap between the left and right side of the brain, but he is one of them. While working in the automotive industry he gained experience designing casting and injection molding tools. He can easily evaluate a design and quickly make it so the part is cost effective and manufacturable. Zoran is a team player and has outstanding work ethic. The harder the problem, the more he attacks it. His combination of skills, experience and ground-up approach to solving problems made him a were a perfect fit for his position in PHD.

Zoran received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius – Skopje, North Macedonia. He is currently working on his Master Studies. In his limited spare time, his hobbies are assembling custom computers and painting. Being a car-guy, in his off time he enjoys working on his Toyota Altezza, testing various tweaks and modifications, taking part in customized cars exhibitions.

Dennis Wootten

SENIOR ENGINEER

Dennis brings a long rich design history to PHD. He is our most senior engineer, and his designs are always teeming with a deep understanding of fundamental engineering principles. He is one of those rare engineers who can listen to an idea and quickly grasp the multiple levels of challenges that need to be overcome to achieve the client’s end goal. He has a pragmatic methodical approach that results in solid, robust and safe designs.

Dennis has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering Design from the University of California, Davis. He brings over 30 years of solid design experience to the table. He has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to vehicle damper design and theory. He has 15 US patents.  In addition, he has expertise in kinematic simulation, surface modeling, tolerance analysis and GD&T.

Josh Yablon

SENIOR ENGINEER

Josh is a highly experienced bicycle frame and product designer. He has designed and engineered frames and parts for Cannondale, Salsa, Alter Cycles and Surly. He is one of the first designers to work on the fat bike trend. His work on bicycle shocks won multiple world championships in both the prototype and production form. Josh has an innovative out of the box approach to solving design problems. His simple pragmatic approach yields designs that meet or exceed cost goals. In addition, Josh is a veritable encyclopedia on bicycle design history. If he doesn’t know about it, it probably doesn’t exist!

Josh also has experience in manufacturing engineering.  He started his career programming CNC machines, streamlining auto part machining and designing tooling.  More recently he has been designing machines to assemble shock absorbers more efficiently, consistently and safely..

Josh’s career started well before graduating from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Josh’s parents raced Austin Healey Sprites and  owned an auto repair shop and a bicycle shop while Josh was growing up. The mechanical wizardry that surrounded him as a kid inspired his interest in Engineering. After graduating college, Josh worked at Ann Arbor Machine Company, Quality Bicycle Products, and Fox Racing Shox.

At PHD we use all of Josh’s 25+ years of experience to the fullest extent. His unique approach to solving problems and his strong work ethic make him a valued member of our team.

In his down time Josh likes to take some time at the track to ride motorcycles, work on his Datsun, build furniture and of course, ride his large collection of road and mountain bikes.

Robert Slaw

MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Bob is a third-generation engineer in his family that loves problem solving. After receiving his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in Penn State, he moved to California to work for Fox Racing Shox. He started as a sustaining engineer where he functioned as a hub between design engineering, manufacturing, quality control, the test lab and part suppliers. Next, he moved over to Cannondale where he worked with a talented team to develop the World Cup winning strut, Lefty Ocho. Bob is very proud of the fact that suspension service centers have applauded the reliability and durability of Ocho. He also designed the air-spring and damper used in Cannondale’s gravel bike strut, Lefty Oliver. In 2019 he transitioned to his family’s concrete business, J&R Slaw Precast.  He introduced them to 3D modeling, CNC programming and contemporary project planning.

When he isn’t working, he can either be found tinkering in his garage shop or mountain biking all over the country.

Alberto Eduati

MECHANICAL ENGINEER

Alberto is a mechanical engineer with over than 15 years of experience in mechanical engineering design. He has in sheet metal, carpentry and injection molding plastics. He is also great at reverse engineering. He always delivers great results in a quick time manner.

Alberto has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Padua, Italy.

Craig Ovans

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER

Craig grew up in Wisconsin where he learned the value of a strong work ethic, teamwork, and dedication from playing sports and working for his dad installing conveyors for companies such as John Deere, Ford, and Volvo. In college he was the top salesman in Wisconsin for Cutco Cutlery where he figured out what people need and how to meet those needs at a great value.

He has always had an artistic side and a desire to create which led him to study art and design in college. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Industrial Design from UW-Stout. Shortly after, he had the opportunity to move to Arizona. His career began working for a product development company that specializes in engineering and quickly learned SolidWorks and design for manufacturing. He continued to exhibit his creativity through graphic design creating logos and packaging for products he designed.

Craig’s unique ability combines an eye for stylish design with the ability to develop products that can be manufactured. His experience ranges from consumer electronics and housewares to hearing and medical products.

In his spare time, he enjoys being a dedicated soccer coach, but he is also a fitness enthusiast.

Jesus Lucio

SIMULATION EXPERT

Jesus has a Doctor of Science in Physics from the University of Valladolid, Spain. He brings to the team many decades of experience in physics simulations and analysis. He is an expert in COMSOL Multiphysics.