Joel Smolen is the managing General Partner of Axion Capital Management, LLC. He has been creating value for clients and investors for over forty years. He manages the Axion Opportunity Fund, LP and various partnerships. Joel also sits on the Board of Directors for AmpliMed Corporation, a biotech drug discovery company founded in 1989, which has multiple drugs in late phase clinical trials.

Joel was a pioneer in the metallurgy and emerging electronics industry, and consulted and worked with Intel, Apple, IBM, AMD, and National Semiconductor in the 70’s and 80’s. He founded and was CEO of Applied Molecular Technology Corporation (AMTEC), which was sold to Boliden AB, a European metals company, with 5000 employees.

Prior to that, Joel was founder and CEO of MicroMetallics Corporation (MICTROMET), which was sold to Xstrata PLC, (XTA.L) an international mining company with $28 billion in revenue in 2008, and over 22,000 employees worldwide..

Joel was also Senior Vice President of LMC Corporation, now part of Sims Metal Management (SMS.NYSE), a worldwide secondary metals company, with over 5000 employees.

Joel is an Army veteran, serving as a Medic oversees during the Vietnam era.

Joel lives with his wife, Bonnie, and has five children. An avid outdoorsman and photographer, Joel has lead 14 mountaineering and photography treks in Nepal and Asia, and has lead an expedition to the Arctic Circle.