HPQ Silicon Inc. informed shareholders that it has partnered with three leading French research engineers to create Novacium, a "jeune entreprise innovante (J.E.I)" based in Lyon, France. NOVACIUM'S EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD OF RENEWABLE ENERGY MATERIALS (PHOTOVOLTAIC, HYDROGEN AND BATTERIES) IS IN HIGH DEMAND. Novacium's three founding research engineers, Jed KRAIEM PhD, Oleksiy NICHIPORUK PhD, and Julien DEGOULANGE PhD have over 50 years of combined experience in developing innovative processes for renewable energy; this includes hydrogen production via hydrolysis, photovoltaic processes, as well as materials for batteries and energy storage.

In addition, the team has world-renowned expertise in producing and purifying Silicon. AN EXPERIENCED TECHNICAL TEAM WITH A PROVEN TRACK RECORD: Novacium's Chief Operating Officer ("COO"), Mr. Jed KRAIEM, received his PhD from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon in 2005; he then worked for the CNRS and FerroPEM (now Ferroglobe) as Valorization engineer in order to develop an innovative process for crystallization and purifying Silicon for Photovoltaics. He was subsequently approached by Apollon Solar SAS, a French start-up, which recruited him to become the Innovation Director and later promoted him to General Manager, a position he held until recently.

Novacium's Chief Technical Officer ("CTO"), Mr. Oleksiy NICHIPORUK, earned his PhD from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon in 2005, he then joined PHOTOWATT, the leading French producer of solar cells and panels, as an R&D engineer to work on continuous process improvement. In 2012, he joined the team at Apollon Solar as R&D engineer and was soon promoted to CTO due to his extensive expertise, a position he held until recently. Novacium's Chief Innovation Officer ("CIO"), Mr. Julien DEGOULANGE, obtained his PhD from the Polytechnic Institute in Grenoble in 2008 (his thesis was on purifying Si Metallurgy via plasma), he then spent a year working for NNTNU/SINTEF in Norway on Silicon crystallization as a postdoc.

He went on to joint Apollon Solar in 2010 as an R&D engineer and was later promoted to Head of the Silicon Business, a position he held until recently.