BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 12, 2026--
illumynt, a technology-driven leader in AI hardware lifecycle recovery and IT asset disposition (ITAD), today announced that Matt Popieniuck has joined the company as Vice President of Customer Success & Delivery, effective August 2026. He reports to CEO Jörg Herbarth.
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Popieniuck joins illumynt after 28 years at Dell Technologies, where he progressed from group leadership through senior and principal program management roles before moving into services sustainability strategy. In that most recent chapter, he worked on the question now driving illumynt's market: what happens to enterprise technology after its first deployment, and how manufacturers and their customers recover value from it responsibly.
In his new role, Matt leads the execution of illumynt’s customer programs from commercial handoff through final delivery, ensuring programs consistently meet SLAs, operational objectives, and customer expectations. He leads the company's Program Account Manager organization, co-owns new program introduction alongside illumynt's solutions team, and will build the company's enterprise program management office as illumynt scales.
"Matt spent nearly three decades inside one of the world's largest technology manufacturers, and the last several years of it on what happens to hardware at the end of its first life," said Jörg Herbarth, CEO of illumynt. "He has sat on the customer's side of this table. He knows what a program is supposed to deliver, and he knows exactly what it costs an enterprise when it doesn't. That is the perspective we want owning execution."
The appointment comes as illumynt expands its global operational footprint. The company employs more than 180 people across facilities in Burlington, Massachusetts; Columbus, Ohio; Amsterdam; Hong Kong; and St. Petersburg, Florida, and will open the Talorem Innovation Center in Columbus this fall.
"I spent most of my career building the programs that put technology into the world, and the last few years working on what happens to it afterward," said Popieniuck. "The intent was never the hard part — the execution was. illumynt has built real engineering infrastructure behind that problem instead of treating it as a logistics exercise, and that is a rare thing in this industry. I'm here to make sure every customer program delivers on what we promised."
Popieniuck holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management from Dean College.
About illumynt
illumynt is a technology-driven leader in AI hardware lifecycle recovery, providing engineering-grade testing, certification, and value recovery for retired AI infrastructure — including GPU grading, chip-level NAND recovery, and liquid-cooled hardware evaluation. illumynt's Talorem platform brings engineering rigor to an industry historically built on logistics alone.
Matthew Popieniuck, Vice President of Customer Success and Delivery.
CHICAGO (AP) — First responders and utility crews worked overnight into Wednesday clearing roads from trees and wires that were downed during severe storms in the Midwest that unleashed tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding while knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers.
A 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on a home in Geneva, Indiana, during Tuesday's storms, the Jennings County Sheriff's Office said. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine said a resident of Roseville died during a health emergency when first responders, faced with flooded roads, couldn’t reach them. Officials in Portage, Indiana, were investigating whether the severe weather played a role in a reported house explosion that killed a person.
Lightning struck a prison complex southwest of Cleveland on Tuesday, injuring 16 incarcerated people who were hospitalized, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections. Their conditions weren't immediately known.
The storms inflicted a wide swath of damage from the Chicago area to western Pennsylvania, and the National Weather Service said threats of severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall will continue over the next few days in the Midwest, Ohio Valley and central Appalachians.
More than 700,000 customers were without power Wednesday morning in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, according to poweroutage.us.
The National Weather Service said it confirmed three tornadoes in counties south of Chicago. Water rescues were reported during heavy rains in several states including Ohio, where DeWine sent 40 Ohio Army National Guard members to help in two counties east of Columbus.
Tornado warning sirens howled Tuesday as the skies darkened in the Chicago area. All flights were temporarily stopped at Chicago’s two major airports, and officials warned of delays as the backlog was cleared.
Photos posted on social media from the Chicago area and across the state line in Indiana showed flooded roads, trees tangled in power lines and homes with gashes in their roofs.
“No power. It was very scary. We were down in the basement,” said Javid Jenkins of Homewood, a Chicago suburb. “We’re built for snow. We’re built for cold. We’re not built for this.”
Jenkins, 54, said he was driving around for gas to fire up a generator to preserve food in his refrigerator.
Forecasters said a wind gust of 99 mph (159 kph) was recorded in Gary, Indiana. Elsewhere there were numerous reports of gusts of 80 mph (128 kph) or more at personal weather stations.
Preliminary information indicated that the intense system that swept from Iowa into Indiana over several hours qualified as a derecho, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday evening. Derechos are prolonged straight-line wind events that unleash heavy rainfall and travel far distances. The damage they cause is sometimes comparable to the destructive forces of tornadoes or hurricanes.
“Total devastation. No roof,” said Kerry Hourigan, standing outside her home of 25 years in Tinley Park, another Chicago suburb. “Stupid thing, but my focus was I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I have no idea where that is. It’s disappeared.”
Meteorologist Scott Baker said the Midwest was on the outer edge of a “ring of fire,” bringing waves of excessive moisture, instability and storms.
Dayton, Ohio, set a daily rainfall record with 2.07 inches (5.25 cm), shattering a mark set in 1915, the weather service said. Forecasters said multiple rounds of rain would cause flood hazards in the Ohio Valley through early Friday.
White reported from Detroit. Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, Jennifer Garske in Washington, Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
In this image made from video, damage caused by a strong storm is seen a home in Tinley Park, Ill., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)
A home is damaged after a storm in Tinley Park, Ill., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)
In this image made from video, a roof is damaged after a strong storm in Tinley Park, Ill., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)
Storm clouds move in over Paycor Stadium and practice fields during the Cincinnati Bengals' NFL football practice in Cincinnati, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Kerry Hourigan speaks on the phone after reviewing damage a storm caused to her home in Tinley Park, Ill., Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld)
