# Kenan Sahin

Kenan E. Sahin is a Turkish-born American scientist and entrepreneur. He is the founder, president and the chief technology officer of TIAX LLC in Lexington, Massachusetts. He is also the founder and CEO of CAMX Power, which was a division of TIAX LLC before becoming a separate company in May 2014.

## Early life and education

Sahin was born in Aydın, Turkey. His father, Eyüp Şahin, was an industrialist and a member of the Turkish parliament. He completed elementary school in Aydın and graduated from Robert Academy (middle school) in Istanbul, Turkey. He started high school at Robert College but completed it at Inglewood High School in California. He then started his college studies at Robert College (now the Boğaziçi University) and then transferred to MIT to finish his BS. He completed his PhD at the MIT School of Industrial Management (now MIT Sloan School).

## Business career

The early years of Sahin's entrepreneurial career overlapped with the final years of his academic career which began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and continued at MIT with interleaved periods at Robert College of Istanbul, Harvard University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has global patents and numerous academic publications.

## Kenan Systems

In 1982, Sahin founded Kenan Systems with a $1,000 personal investment, as part of his outreach activities while at MIT. The company grew to become a world leader in telecommunications software, creating nearly 1,000 professional jobs. Kenan Systems was a developer of many transaction systems (notably Arbor/BP for telecommunications, CitiExpert for funds transfers) and enterprise systems (notably MAIS for market analysis, CABS for federal budgeting, and META for technology deployment). The company was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts with additional offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The company was profitable throughout its existence.
In 1999, Sahin sold Kenan Systems to Lucent Technologies/Bell Laboratories for $1.5 billion.[2] In addition, all Kenan Systems technical staff were accepted as members of the legendary Bell Labs. The transaction was a merger under the pooling of interest rules of that era resulting in a stock swap with the Lucent stock negotiable after thirty days. The first year Kenan Systems remained completely independent. While continuing to direct Kenan Systems as its president he was also made a VP of technology at Bell Labs.
The Arbor/BP Telecommunications platform developed at Kenan Systems based on early forms of AI and Big Data, later renamed Kenan/BP by Lucent, now serves over one billion telecom subscribers globally.

## Lucent/Bell Labs

The sale transaction to Lucent/Bell Labs was technically a merger under the Pooling of Interest rules of that era resulting in a stock swap but with the Lucent stock he received negotiable after 30 days. The transaction was very accretive to the Lucent stock.
Kenan Systems became independent as a subsidiary of Lucent but part of the Lucent Communication Software business. Rather than leave immediately he agreed to stay on for a few years. He continued as the president of Kenan Systems, was also appointed a VP of technology at Bell Labs, with all 700 technical staff having been made members of Bell Labs.
Kenan Systems was one of the most successful of over 30 acquisitions Lucent made. Even though it had 1,000 staff versus total Lucent staff of 135,000, during its first year (1999) during which it was operated independently, it generated about 5% of total Lucent net cash flow for that year.
In June 1999, based on his dual positions as president of Kenan Systems (now a Lucent subsidiary) and as a VP at Bell Labs, he established the Joint Development and Delivery Center (JDCC) at Murray Hill, opposite to the Bell Labs facility assigning 50 staff from Bell Labs that had generated an array of software innovations and 50 staff from Kenan Systems who had a proven track record of converting innovations into software products. The Arbor/BP platform was used as the framework with a variety of plug-and-play applications modules running in an operating system coming from Bell Labs. The architecture was named Balls (apps), Bins, and the Backplane (the operating system).
In January 2000, Sahin was promoted to be the group president of the communications software business even as he remained the president of Kenan Systems and continuing to direct the JDCC. Having completed two full years and also disagreeing with some of the new Lucent executives on voice vs data as strategy, he left in December 2000 to pursue other pathways which led to TIAX and then CAMX Power.

## TIAX and CAMX Power

Shortly after leaving Lucent/Bell Labs, Sahin founded TIAX (2002) which purchased the lab-based Technology and Innovation (T&I) unit of the fabled Arthur D. Little, Inc. (ADL) established by Mr. Little in 1886, run by him until 1935, owned by MIT until the 1950s, when it became an employee-owned global company. ADL ceased operations after 116 years, with its various divisions sold, one unit being T&I, the “classical” ADL. Sahin transformed the TIAX/T&I combination to mature select early-stage technologies in energy, chemistry, materials, and functional wearables to be IP-protected, de-risked, and production-ready for its industry partners to make and sell. From 2002 to 2007, the chairman of the advisory board was Charles Vest, the then president of MIT. In 2014, he spun out certain electromechanical and electrochemistry technologies in a separate company, CAMX Power. As he does in TIAX, at CAMX Power Kenan is actively involved in technology selection and development as well as their marketing.
CAMX Power has since developed two breakthrough cathode chemistries for Lithium-ion batteries – CAM-7® and GEMX®. These globally patented cathode chemistry inventions, licensed by Panasonic Energy, Samsung, LG Energy Solution, Umicore, L&F, EcoPro BM, BASF, and others, have become central to Lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, minimizing Cobalt, increasing performance and reducing costs. CAMX has also developed ultra safe Lithium ion-based cells that tolerate extreme abuse like nail penetration and extreme temperatures. Additional products include a cell screening instrument that can detect incipient shorts in lithium-ion cells in hours as opposed to the weeks. It is being used by NASA and the Navy for absolute quality control of cells. Another product in field tests continuously monitors battery packs for any emerging shorts in the cells.
TIAX focuses on functional coatings and functional wearables. As part of the latter, TIAX, along with its two manufacturing partners, designed, developed and manufactures the Integrated Aircrew Ensemble (IAE).
Designed specifically for pilots in Air Force ejection seat aircraft, the IAE is a custom-fit, multi-layer system of gear consisting of survival equipment and protective clothing. Depending on the aircraft, location, and mission, the ensemble can efficiently layer up to seven pieces of gear or components, while reducing bulk and improving aircrew mobility. The IAE development spanned more than 10 years, meeting over 150 requirements. It went through extensive field testing by the Air Force and was fielded by TIAX for F-22 aircrew. It can provide survival protection if the pilot ejects at high altitudes facing winds of 600 mph or more, chemical, radiological and biohazard protection if the pilot falls into fields with such dangers, survival if the pilot falls into super cold waters. It also handles bodily needs. It has been sized for males and females.
Another product is a novel and patented impact protection mesh that can withstand massive impact and yet recover within seconds. It is being field tested as pads in helmets and can be used in other wearables like vests and shoes.
TIAX has developed omniphobic coatings, sprayable and then strippable coatings to decontaminate, non-toxic glues for underwater use, non-toxic insecticide coatings for fabrics.

## Career in academia

From 1965 to 1986, Sahin held various faculty positions with Robert College of Istanbul (now the Bosphorus University) (assistant professor), University of Massachusetts, Amherst (full tenured professor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Sloan School: instructor; assistant professor; visiting assistant professor; visiting associate professor; lecturer in the MIT Sloan Fellows Program); and at Harvard University (visiting faculty member, School of Public Health).

## Board memberships and awards

Sahin serves/served on the boards of MIT (life member), Argonne National Lab, NEMA, Council on Competitiveness, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Advisory), Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Advisory), American Field Service (AFS), Bolte Medal and others.
While a professor at MIT, Sahin received the Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teacher Award. In 2003, the World Economic Forum named Sahin one of its 40 Technology Pioneers. He received the New England Business and Technology's first "Circle of Excellence" award in 2004. In 2006, he was given the Golden Door Award by the International Institute of Boston in recognition of his achievements as both an entrepreneur and an academic. In 2007, TIAX was recognized as one of the Global Growth companies by the World Economic Forum, and Sahin was invited to Davos-East held in Dalian, China to address Innovation. In 2010, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and this recognition was entered into the US Congressional records. In 2015, he was given an honorary doctorate in engineering by Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2024, he received the Richard J. Bolte Sr. Award for Supporting Industries.
Sahin has been granted global patents in the areas of computer communication networks and lithium-ion batteries, and has numerous academic publications. He has published a book describing the Kenan Systems journey as a case study on lean startups (Lean Startup to Lean Company to Rich Exit, Forbes, March 2024 and a companion guidebook for startups also through Forbes, November 2024).
Sahin has also lectured widely; most recently he gave the Priestley Society lecture at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. He has also made numerous conference presentations in the area of lithium-ion batteries.

## Philanthropy

As part of his philanthropy, Sahin has supported many organizations and worthy causes. His 1999 major unrestricted gift to MIT was the largest to MIT and one of the largest to any university until then. He is actively supporting an initiative at the Resources for the Future (RFF) that the real clear and present danger is climate and weather volatility, a much more immediate consequence of global warming.

## Publications and lectures (partial List)

Lean Startup to Lean Company to Rich Exit, ForbesBooks, March 26, 2024
Lean Startup to Lean Company to Rich Exit: A Guidebook, ForbesBooks, November 19, 2024
Restoring an American Industrial Legend: TIAX and the Arthur D. Little Company, Joseph Priestley Society Lecture at the Science History Institute, January 18, 2024
Innovation and the University-Industry Interface, Xconomy, February 19, 2008
Our Innovation Backlog, MIT Technology Review, December/January 2003
MIT keynote address, 10th annual 50K Entrepreneurship Competition, 1999
MIT keynote address, 11th annual MIT Enterprise 11th Satellite Broadcast Series, October 5, 2000
New Directions in Services Management, with Mitra, et al, Bell Labs Tech. J. 5(1): 17-34 (2000)
The Intelligent Banking System, with Keith Sawyer, Proceedings of The First Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence, March 28–30, 1989, Stanford University, Stanford, California
Message-Based Response Routing, IEEE Trans. Computers 23(12): 1250-1257 (1974)

## Articles about Kenan and his professional activities (partial list)

“This startup developed a promising new battery technology material and a novel survival strategy”, James Temple, MIT Technology Review, November 14, 2017
Why Big Companies Can’t Invent, Howard Anderson, MIT Technology Review, January 2004
Other People’s Progress, editor-in-chief, MIT Technology Review, December 1, 2003
A Father of Invention is Retooling, Barnaby Feder, New York Times, February 23, 2003
National News Briefs; M.I.T. to Get $100 Million, New York Times, November 9, 1999

## Personal life

Sahin currently resides in Massachusetts.