I agree with the previous posters, in that i think it would be quite natural for Dr. Chahar to touchbase with his former colleagues at ConocoPhillips to discuss natural graphite.

For those that are not aware, ConocoPhillips not only deals with synthetic graphite, but also natural graphite. Where you see in presentations for CP A12 used in a li-ion battery, this is a natural graphite core coated with ConocoPhillips proprietary surface treatment. Lots of ways to try and confirm this (via other sources on the internet), but in the presentation link below, on slide 7, talks about what CP (CPreme) A12 graphite is:

http://wenku.baidu.com/view/c8b345fa26fff705cc170ab9

Type in "conocophillips a12 graphite" into Google search and you'll find a number of various presentations and references for this type of graphite product.

Dr. Chahar may have had a hand in development of the proprietary process, or oversaw the market development of this product while at ConocoPhillips. With Dr. Chahar developing a potentially competing product to CP A12, ConocoPhillips is probably keenly aware of the graphite and most likely received samples to see how the Albany graphite performs with their own proprietary treatment.

Dr. Chahar has previous success at ConocoPhillips in being able to develop, market, and execute the graphite business. By no means is ZEN a "slam dunk", but they seem to have the right team and strategy to be successful....and with any luck, they will be able to execute.