Management Team

I had the great good fortune to accompany Buckminster Fuller on his speaking tour of Southeast Asia in 1977. I began to construct tensegrities as art and to my knowledge was the first to use "curved" compression members in their construction.   My subsequent explorations into the geometry of "Tensegrities" provided insights into the possibility that a "universal fabric" could be woven from wire and struts.  Fuller wrote of this in Synergetics.  However, Tensegrities, in their present construction, are neither practical in application nor do they lend themselves to machine assembly.  It took a long time to come to that conclusion (read my musings on why the Flextegrity material is not a tensegrity).  For 25 years I carried around  the idea for such a fabric.  During those years I went back to school for a graduate degree, started a successful software company (with the extraordinary contribution of many others) and did a major historic preservation project (my final stone piling project!).

I could no longer ignore my passion for the subject so began anew my exploration for a universal fabric not to be confused with the "Fabric of the Universe."  First, I stacked octahedral tensegrity cells into a tensile array. However, this time I realized that the outline of the icosahedron formed by the tensile elements was actually the omni-axial compression element (or thinking differently, its inverse).  Then I realized that the lines of tension could be created from strategically placed interconnecting elements.  I think it was by training that I question everything, and in this case the opposite was correct. I've spent the last three years nailing down the intellectual property, exploring different weave patterns, assembly techniques and understanding the basic structural elements of the array. 

In my years of entrepreneurial experience I know that while the insight might be mine alone it takes a great team of people and many skills to exploit the potential of the idea and bring products to market. Sometimes it's serendipitous and other times you have to know when to change course and go in another direction.  This wonderful journey continues as a result of outstanding contributions to my understanding of structures, fabrics and design from the following people: LaJean Lawson, George Laird, Jeff Miller, Mark Martin, Mike Girard, Dave Van Dyke, Bill Birdwell, Jason West, Dan Mandish, Griff Jay, Paul Clerc and many more.

 
LaJean Lawson, Director of Product Marketing & Development

-Founder and principal of consulting business, Creative Fitness Solutions, for the past 16 years.

-Key national and international companies/clients have included: Champion Athleticwear, Numetrex, Friction Free Technologies, Playtex, Nike, vielife, Wellsource, Jane Fonda Health & Fitness, American Telecast Corporation, Spalding Fitness, Precor USA, Stars in the Wild, Imagination Corporation of America.

-Education: M.S., Clothing/Textiles, Utah State University, 1985; Ph.D., Exercise Science, Oregon State University, 1991.

Establishment of board member selection criteria in relationship to the company’s strategy and needs is in progress. We are seeking advisors and active angel investors with backgrounds in materials science/engineering, manufacturing, and distribution.

Other

Key professional entities that continue to support and contribute substantially to Flextegrity’s efforts include:

-Jim Cochell (business strategy and development)
-Creative Products, Inc. (rapid prototyping)
-Development Works (industrial design and engineering)
-Klarquist Sparkman, LLP (intellectual property and general counsel)
-Mark Martin (mathematical modeling / computational materials science)
-Predictive Engineering (structural and mechanical engineering including finite element analysis)
-VGO Testing & Inspection Engineers (finite element analysis and destructive testing)
-Watermelon Works (website Design)