A team of passionate professionals

Ivo Krpelan

CEO

Ivo became a part of Pewas in 2020 and his main goal is to prepare our company for its further development and international growth. Due to his rich professional past, Ivo meets all the prerequisites to be able to bring our company and its products to the international markets. Ivo has a 10 years finance management experience in CFO positions and 14 years general management experience in CEO positions. For last 20 years, he has worked for a Danish international group Falck as a CFO and  later as a Reginal Director and Partner for CEE region, where he was responsible for a group of companies with app. 3.000 employees and over EUR 65 million of yearly revenues. Ivo is a graduate from the University of Economics in Prague.

Peter Fatul

Project manager

Peter started his professional career in 2004 as a Sales Manager of rubber chemicals in the company Duslo, the second biggest chemical company in Slovakia. After eight years in 2012 he was promoted to as the Head of the Sales Department of SBU Organics. He was responsible for the business management of three organic units in Duslo - Dispersions and glues, Rubber chemicals and Specialties with sales around €120 million per year. He managed contracting processes with the most important partners including five top tire producers Michelin, Goodyear, Continental, Bridgestone and Pirelli. After 11 years in Duslo he decided to accept the offer of CRW Plasticos Slovakia at the position of a Business Development Manager. From June 2016 is a part of company PEWAS and is responsible for business and logistic activities. Peter is a graduate from the University of Economics in Bratislava.

Viktor Gelinger

Chemical Engineer

Viktor graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology. Soon after graduation, he was recruited by PEWAS Company where he started in the position of Junior Research and Development. He has spent the past three years actively working on projects’ realization related to superabsorbent polymers. He is dedicated to applied research, collaboration with external institutes, strategic partners, and clients.   He is working on methods development, laboratory testing, and the direct use of superabsorbents under real conditions at current and potential clients. 

Lukáš Petra

Chemical Engineer

Lukáš graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, where he received a PhD. in inorganic chemistry. He worked on his thesis at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences. He has also lectured for five years at the Comenius University in Bratislava. He received an internship at the Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University for nine months, working on polymer-clay nanocomposites with antimicrobial properties - the results of which are being patented.

Lukáš was also a Research Fellow at the Laboratory for Advanced Materials (LAM) at Comenius University where he was part of a project funded under Horizon2020 (ERA Chair). The goal of the project was to establish an internationally recognized research program in the field of advanced materials (materials that have the potential to enable new technologies). Research focus was on materials with possible applications in energy conversion and storage, also optoelectronics and electronics. Part of the project was the exchange of researchers during which Lukáš had two internships at Oxford University and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA.

Halyna Bodnár Yankovych

Chemical Engineer

Halyna graduated from the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and the Department of Microbiology at the Faculty of Biology of Uzhhorod National University. After graduation, she worked at the Uzhhorod Border State Control and Toxicology Laboratory as a leading chemist and quality manager. While working in the laboratory, she received training on pesticide analysis using advanced analytical methods in Lithuania, Latvia and Germany. She completed her PhD. at the Institute of Geotechnics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in 2022. As part of her doctoral studies, she participated in research internships in Austria and Spain, during which she focused on the preparation of composites with photocatalytic properties and their use for water purification.

Michaela Kusá

Biotechnology Engineer

Michaela graduated from the Slovak University of Agriculture. She is expert on modern biotechnological methods and techniques of cultivation of microorganisms, tissue culture, preparation of biologically important substances. She has strong experience in gene manipulation, utilization of RFLP, PCR, Western –blot, embryotechnology, enzyme engineering, genomics, bioinformatics, waste chemistry, food chemistry. Formerly, she worked in a Dutch company during university and her final thesis was linked to the company focused on food waste as a feed for farm animals. After graduation she held the position of the chemical and legislative support in the field of fertilizers and feeds in the same company. Recently, she has worked 4 years in Slovak company as a development and quality specialist for cosmetics and detergents. She had responsibility and prepared technical documents of the products in accordance with applicable legislative of SR and EU. She rated sensory and analytical quality of her own and competing products and under her leadership for 4 years the company has successfully launched lot of products.

Michaela Piliarova

Molecular Biology

Michaela graduated from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Department of Biotechnology (BSc.) in 2010 and Department of Analytical chemistry and biochemistry (MSc.) in 2012. Formerly, she worked as Pharmacy technician for several pharmacy companies. Later on, she completed a PhD in Molecular biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava in partnership with National Agricultural and Food Centre – Research Institute of Plant Production in Piešťany focusing on genetic diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their interactions with plants.

Lívia Galanová

Biotechnology Engineer

Lívia studied at the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, where she graduated from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Technology at the Department of Agrobiotechnology. During her studies, she gained knowledge in the field of biological material analysis, biotechnological and biochemical methods and techniques. After graduating, she worked in the United States under the Work and Travel program to improve her English language skills. In 2021 she joined PEWAS and deals with laboratory testing of seeds, specifically monitoring of germination and growth. These tests represent an important part of the implemented projects related to seeds coated with superabsorbent polymer.

Ingrida Cinkocki

Biotechnology Engineer

Ingrida graduated from the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. She received her bachelor's degree in the field of Agrobiotechnology, where she focused on the detection of celiac active proteins in selected types of cereals using 2D electrophoresis. Subsequently, she completed her engineering degree in the field of Nutrition and Plant Protection, where she devoted her diploma thesis to bacterial diseases of annual peppers. From January 2024, she is part of the PEWAS team, in which she will focus primarily on the evaluation of the physiological properties of the treated seeds. At the same time, she will participate in the development of the AQUAHOLDER product, determining the quality of the seed coating.

Barbora Sjekelová

Chemical Engineer

Barbora studied at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava at the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology. At the engineering level, she gained a lot of information about polymeric materials, their properties and processing, as well as in the field of physical chemistry of polymers. During her studies, she practiced in a chemical company, where she participated in the testing and analysis of biodegradable polymeric materials based on polylactic acid and polyhydroxybutyrate. In this area of research, she continued to choose the topic of the diploma thesis, in which she dealt with the influence of plasticizers on the properties of a biodegradable polymer mixture based on polylactic acid and polyhydroxybutyrate.

Hryhorii Makarov

Physicist

Hryhorii Makarov graduated from the Department of Reactor Materials and Physical Technologies at the School of Physics and Technology of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, specializing in physics and nanomaterials. After completing his studies, he entered the doctoral program at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics at Comenius University. During his PhD studies, he worked on obtaining doped TiO₂ nanotube arrays and expanding their application in photocatalysis and gas sensing technologies. In 2023, he successfully defended his dissertation. During his postgraduate studies, Hryhorii participated in many international conferences and is the author of a series of scientific papers.

Štefánia Piešťanská

Project Assistant

Stefania is a graduate from the University of Economics in Bratislava with a degree in Business Economics and Management. She applied her knowledge and skills in an international company as part of the Shared Service Center. Her main job tasks were proper managing of the Back Office team and ensuring all requirements of the General Director for Central and Eastern Europe are met. From February 2023, she is a part of company PEWAS and is responsible for the assigned tasks within the projects, as well as their monitoring and coordination.