Technical Profiles
Pilar Franco, Ph.D., Manager, Technical Operations
Dr. Pilar Franco has served as the manager of technical operations for Chiral Technologies Europe (CTE) since 2006. She is an expert in the separation of enantiomers by chromatography at the analytical and preparative scale, and she oversees all technical operations for Chiral Technologies Worldwide.
Dr. Franco joined CTE in 2002 as a product manager. She previously worked with Ciba-Geigy (Basel, Switzerland), now known as Novartis, and in research and development with Almirall Prodesfarma (Barcelona, Spain).
Dr. Franco earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona, studying the preparation and use of polysaccharide derivatives as chiral stationary phases for HPLC. As a Marie Curie Fellow from the European Commission, she also performed postdoctoral work on chiral separations with different technologies with Dr. W. Lindner at the University of Vienna. Dr. Franco has authored more than 30 publications and four book chapters in her area of expertise.
Norbert M. Maier, Ph.D., Technical Manager
During his 15 year tenure in academia, Dr. Maier made important contributions to the development of commercial pi-donor-acceptor- and ion-exchange-type CSPs. He contributed to the understanding of the molecular phenomena underlying the chiral recognition mechanisms with these materials. He is co-inventor of the Lindner anion exchange CSPs. He is also the author and co-author of numerous research papers, reviews and book chapters that cover the fundamental, and application-relevant aspects of liquid chromatographic enantiomer separation technology.
Brian Freer, Ph.D., Business Manager
Dr. Brian Freer has served as the business manager for Chiral Technologies Europe since 2003. He is responsible for managing the separation service business and sales for areas of
Dr. Freer has more than 19 years of experience in market research, product development, and pharmaceutical discovery and manufacturing. He previously worked with Rhodia Pharma Solutions and Dow Corning Ltd.
Dr. Freer earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the
Clint Amoss, Ph.D., Senior Chemist, Laboratory Products
Since 2002, Dr. Clint Amoss has been a Senior Chemist, Laboratory Products for Chiral Technologies, Inc. He assists customers with technical advice and develops chiral separation methods.
Previously, Dr. Amoss worked for ARCO Chemical Company, Lyondell Chemical and Bayer Corporation, performing GC, HPLC and GPC, and 2-dimensional LC/GPC.
Dr. Amoss received his bachelor’s degree from Juniata College and his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Duke University under the direction of Dr. C.H. Lochmuller. He is also a former secretary, program chairman and president of the Chromatography Forum of Delaware Valley, as well as former chairman of the Introductory LC Short Course, and he is currently chairman of the Publicity Committee.
Elena Eksteen, Ph.D., Sr. Manager, Business Development & Planning
As senior manager of business development and planning, Dr. Elena Eksteen is part of the Chiral Technologies Worldwide marketing team. She also serves as a liaison between Chiral Technologies Inc. (CTI) and clients for all separation services projects.
Dr. Eksteen joined CTI in 2004 with more than 25 years of experience working in chromatography, gene amplification and molecular diagnostics. She previously served as senior scientist at Perkin-Elmer/Applera Corp. (Norwalk, Conn.) and as manager of business development at Digene (Gaithersburg, Md.).
Dr. Eksteen earned a Master’s degree in chemistry from Moscow University (Moscow, Russia) and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of London (London). She holds an MBA from Columbia University Business School (New York, NY). Dr. Eksteen edited three books including the “Handbook of Chromatography” by Marcel Dekker. She served as co-editor for Wiley Publishing’s Separation Science book series, published numerous papers and book chapters and has made presentations worldwide. Dr. Eksteen also holds three patents.