About Alva
ALVA started out as an idea in London when two childhood friends talked about merging their two work worlds, electronics and lighting, to bring innovative new light fixtures to market. The conversation continued in Boston years later when advancements in LED technology married their two careers and a company was born. Leveraging decades of experience with electronics and lighting, ALVA offers robust LED fixtures that have been designed from the ground up around the requirements and attributes of LED illumination.
Sean McMurray | President
Sean founded ALVA in 2009 with the goal of accelerating the adoption of solid state lighting by developing high quality LED-based decorative light fixtures. Prior to ALVA, Sean spent 20 years working in the electronics industry in various sales and marketing roles. From 2003 to 2009, Sean led Nu Horizons’ LED lighting organization and worked closely with leading manufactures to offer customers LED solutions. Sean is combining his passion for lighting with his experience in LEDs and electronics.
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Sean studied at the Universita’ Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy.
Michael Babb | Director of Engineering
Michael began designing with white LEDs as a student at Cal Poly Pomona shortly after their market introduction. Over the following 10 years, Michael established himself as a leading expert in the development of complete LED lighting systems. Michael has worked with several leading lighting companies as an independent consultant as well as working with Electro-Tech, a contract manufacturer in Corona, CA. As Director of Engineering, Michael is responsible for all electronic design for ALVA's products. Outside of work, Michael is an avid outdoorsman when he’s not spending time with his daughter.
Daniel Cook, Ph.D. | Thermal Performance Analyst
Properly managing the heat dissipation of LEDs in the subsystem is critical to both the performance and longevity of the light fixture. Dr. Cook leads ALVA’s thermal management analysis and draws upon his vast experience in thermal analysis and aluminum characterization. Dan has held several academic positions including Director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Entertainment and Design Program and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University. Additionally, Dan was a Senior Research Engineer for Reynolds Aluminum for 5 years.
Dan was awarded a M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Advisory Board Member
Daniel M. Mahoney Jr. | President & CEO, Renesas Electronics America, Inc.
Dan is responsible for Renesas’ overall business operations in the North American and South American markets, including the worldwide development and support of all Americas based customers and channel partners. With 27 years experience in the semiconductor industry, Mahoney served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Renesas Technology America after it was formed in 2003 through the merger of Hitachi’s and Mitsubishi’s semiconductor divisions. And he was named as President and Chief executive Officer of Hitachi Semiconductor America in 2002.
A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Mahoney served as an officer in the U.S. Army for five years, attaining the rank of Captain.
Advisory Board Member
Richard Nickson | VP of Domestic Sales, Linear Technology, Inc.
Richard is responsible for all sales for the North American market. With over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, Mr. Nickson held various sales management positions at Linear Technology including European Sales Director and Northwest Area Sales Manager. From April 1991 to August 1993, he was President and Co-founder of Focus Technical Sales. From August 1983 to April 1991, he served with National in various positions where his most recent position was Vice President of North American Sales. Mr. Nickson was Founder and President of Micro-Tex, Inc. from June 1980 to August 1983.
Richard received a B.S. in Mathematics from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1971.