Professor Doctor Dejan Ilic is a Serbian natural scientist and manager.
Education
Ilic studied physical chemistry at universities in Belgrade (1976 to 1981) and Dresden (1982 to 1985). In 1981 he completed his undergraduate degree, got his master"s degree at the University of Medon in (France) in 1982 and qualified as a professor at Graz (Austria)in 2002.
Career
In 1987 Ilic started working for Varta AG. As head of research and development he worked on the development of rechargeable energy storages. Based on his studies at the universities in Dresden and Graz, where he examined chemical and electrochemical reactions between lithium metal and metallic oxide, Ilic directed Varta"s research towards the development and production of microbattery systems In 1996, as Chief Technical Officer, Ilic managed the development of an ultramodern assembly line to produce micro batteries.
In 1997 Ilic relocated 500 highly specialized jobs from Singapore to Ellwangen, Germany, contrary to the general trend at that time.
This decision and his strategy of producing batteries of exactly the size manufacturers needed for their products) led to a deal between Apple Incorporated. and Varta. Varta Microbattery became a worldwide leading manufacturer of polymer batteries.
Ilic restructured Varta Consumer Batteries and helped Varta Microbattery to become a worldwide operating company with 150 million Euros volume and the worldwide leading vendor for rechargeable energy storage in only ten years. Ilic has since left Varta and has taught at universities in New Jersey, Medon and Graz as an honorary professor since 2000.