Michael Lebby (Board Director) has deep experience running and leading technology companies, especially those developing, manufacturing and productizing new platform technologies. His experience includes research, development, volume scale, marketing, sales, finance, and corporate activities both with management as well as at a board director level. Michael’s technical acumen stems from his entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills working throughout his career in both large corporate organizations as well as venture backed start-ups and public companies. After joining LWLG’s Board of Directors in 2015, and leading the corporation as CEO in 2017, he successfully navigated LWLG from OTCQ to the NASDAQ through an organic up-listing with the rare situation of no reverse splits or associated public offering in 2021. The new technology platform that he is driving at LWLG has the potential to change the way the internet operates and performs both from a performance as well as power efficiency perspective. Michael is considered an expert in the technological fields of semiconductors, electronics, optoelectronics/photonics, and optical systems in general. He has built world class teams not only to productize new and novel technology platforms from research concepts through development to production, but also in sales, marketing, human relations, legal, and finance. His career started with the British Government in 1977 in telecommunications and he did research at their prestigious research labs (RSRE Malvern) in the early 1980s and worked at AT&T Bell Labs (1985-1989) in photonics. At Motorola in the 1990s he drove the development, including the first patent co-authorship of the oxide VCSEL diode laser which is now used in laser mice, 3D sensing and structured light in mobile phones and optical interconnects with volumes of over 1B units today. From 2005-2010 he led the USA trade association in optoelectronics (OIDA) and represented and petitioned on behalf of the optoelectronics industry on Capitol Hill for major multi-national corporations. He has run and led several technological start-ups such as Ignis Optics, One Chip Photonics, Translucent Photonics as well as groups in Motorola, Tyco Electronics, AT&T, Intel and others. He has nurtured innovative technology through building a range of customers from small business enterprises to multi-national corporations. He was voted PIC (Photonic Integrated Circuit) business leader of the year by the industry-based PIC International Conference in 2018. He is a technical expert to the European Commission, and a Fellow of NAI, IEEE and Optica. He also is Chair-elect of Optic’s Corporate Engagement Counsel, a board of industry representatives to further business activity in the sector. He is currently a technical expert to the European Commission. Michael holds over 450 issued international patents in photonics and electronics, that have been derived from over 200 issued USPTO utility patents, mostly in the field of optoelectronics, photonics and semiconductors. Michael is passionate about photonics, and has focused his efforts over the last 30years to drive new photonics manufacturing programs in USA and Europe as well as industry-based photonics technology roadmaps.

Gauthier Briere (Product Marketing Manager) is Product Marketing Manager at the Engineered Optics group under the CTO Office at Applied Materials. He obtained his Master Degree on Physics of Lasers and Light Matter Interaction at the Universite of Bourgogne. He, then pursues by doing a PhD in nanophotonics in 2019 at the Universite of Cote d’Azur under the supervision of Patrice Genevet at the Laboratory CRHEA, on the topic of Metasurfaces made of Gallium Nitride with application in the visible range. In 2020, he joined Dispelix, a successful Finnish start up, developing waveguide combiner for augmented reality application. He is now leading the Product marketing for flat optics at Applied Materials.

Tolga Tekin (Group Manager) has received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Technical University of Berlin, in 2004. He was a Research Scientist with the Optical Signal Processing Department, Fraunhofer HHI, where he was engaged in advanced research on optical signal processing, 3R-regeneration, all-optical switching, clock recovery, and integrated optics. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher on components for O-CDMA and terabit routers with the University of California. He worked at Teles AG on phased-array antennas and their components for skyDSL. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM), he then led projects on optical interconnects and silicon photonics packaging. At the Technical University of Berlin, he then engaged in microsystems, photonic integrated system-in-package, photonic interconnects, and 3-D heterogeneous integration research activities. He is Manager of Photonics and Plasmonics Systems Group at Fraunhofer IZM and coordinator of PhoxLab - European Photonics Innovation Hub for Optical Interconnects at Fraunhofer IZM. He coordinated European Flagship project on optical interconnects ‘FP7-PhoxTroT’, and is currently coordinating ‘H2020-L3MATRIX’ and ‘H2020-MASSTART’.

Iwan Davies (Group Technology Director) obtained a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Imperial College, London and his PhD. on MOVPE Studies in Compound Semiconductors from the University of Manchester. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry. With over 40 years-experience in the epitaxial growth by MOVPE of arsenide/phosphide III-V and selenide II-VI semiconductors, he has co-authored over 100 publications covering a very broad range of optoelectronic devices and material systems. Following a period of research and development at Plessey Research (Caswell) Ltd., he has managed the growth and characterization of epi-wafers, research & development, plant operations, product engineering, and chemical, safety & environmental systems during the last 35 years at IQE. He is currently IQE plc Group Technology Director, representing the company on numerous European associations, including Photonics 21 (Board of Stakeholders), European Photonics Industry Consortium, Aeneas and Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI). He leads IQE plc in UK National and European Research Projects, supervises ~10 UK-based PhD studentships and has supported numerous EPSRC, NRN Wales, Centres for Doctoral Training and Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects with UK universities.

Amin Abbasi (Business Manager) received his PhD degrees in ultra-high-speed directly modulated DFB lasers from Ghent University/imec in 2016. He continued his research at imec/UGent on 100 Gb/s single-channel EAM modulators until 2017. He joined AntwerpSpace/OHB as Photonic Team Leader on microwave photonics applications. From 2020, he is in the role of Business Development Manager at imec, covering imec’s SiN/Si 200- and 300-mm photonic platforms for multiple applications such as quantum computing, lidar, bio-sensing, AR/VR. He has (co-)authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications.

Udo Heinzel (CTO) joined Posalux in September 2016 as the Senior Manager for Applications and was appointed to the position of CTO in June 2019. Prior to his activities at Posalux, Udo held several positions at key players in the automotive industry. With his brought experience, he has great knowledge of customer requirements and machine solutions for mass production. Udo, born 1968 in Erlangen Germany, holds an engineering degree of the Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Sander Dorrestein (Program Manager Integrated Photonics Packaging) is a mechanical engineer with a special interest in micro-assembly processes and technologies. He has broad experience in the field of bonding and joining applications for both micro-electrical and micro-optical packaging. He has a proven track record of developing bonding and joining processes currently used in manufacturing for consumer, medical, industrial, and automotive applications.

Thierry Lazerand (General Manager) is currently the General Manager of Plasma-Therm Europe. He joined Plasma-Therm headquarters in Florida in 2010 after over twenty years spend in various technology and management roles both in device manufacturing and capital equipment companies in France and USA. He relocated in Grenoble, France in 2019 to take responsibility of the EMEA branch of Plasma-Therm, to ensure the implementation and execution of the plasma-based solutions Innovation activity and Product Management serving worldwide Universities and R&D centers.

Philipp-Immanuel Dietrich (Technology Fellow) serves as Technology Fellow at Vanguard Automation. He is also a co-founder of Vanguard Photonics, one of two joint venture partners which make up Vanguard Automation. In his role he spearheads the acquisition of funded research programs and oversees its execution. He provides technology leadership across all technical groups and key R&D projects, as well as develops strategy technology partnerships. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering in the field of 3D nano-printed photonic structures such as micro-optical lenses and photonic wire bonds. He has contributed to several patents and journal publications in the area of additive manufacturing and received an IBM PhD Fellowship Award 2015.

Ruggero Loi (Supply Chain Scientist) was born in Cagliari (Italy). In 2013 he graduated with a M.Sc. degree in Applied Physics at University of Cagliari. In 2019 he attained a Ph.D. in Engineering Science – Photonics, at Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC), Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland. He pioneered the heterogenous integration of III-V devices onto different platforms by micro transfer printing (MTP) since 2014 and has authored several scientific publications and patents in the field of MTP for integrated photonics. In 2019 he joined X-Celeprint, leading the development of micro transfer printing solutions for integrated photonics in Irish and EU research projects and for private customers. He is now supporting the assembly of the supply chain for MTP with the aim to accelerate the deployment of MTP in production; Ruggero is member of the Optical Society of America since 2017.

Daniel Sá Pereira (Sales Manager) joined Bühler Leybold Optics in 2021 working on the Semiconductor Market Segment as a technical Sales Manager. Daniel is a Microelectronics Engineer from the New University of Lisbon, Portugal (2015) and a PhD in Physics from the University of Durham, United Kingdom (2019). His research focused on the characterization of organic materials for application in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Since leaving academia, Daniel has joined Business Unit Optics at Bühler Leybold Optics Alzenau to focus on emerging applications that combine the worlds of Optics with Semiconductor in applications where optical filters are built directly on semiconductor chips.

Joni Mellin (Business Line Manager) is the Photonics Business Line Manager at X-Fab since 2022. Previously he served at ams OSRAM (2014-2021), where he held Engineering director and other positions in the Full-Service Foundry division. Prior to that, he served at Microsoft (2014), Nokia (2008-2014), Micro Analog Systems (1999 – 2008) and Helsinki University of Technology (1997-1999). He received his Licentiate of Science (Tech) (2012) and Master of Science (Tech) (1999) degrees in semiconductor technology from the Aalto University and a dual GEMBA degree from WU Vienna and University of Minnesota in 2019.

Ruud Vullers (Director R&D) has a PhD in Physics from the University of Leuven. He has 25 years of experience in industrial research & product development in the field of nanotechnology, materials and sensors. He has worked in various positions for Philips, imec, Teledyne Dalsa and is (co)author of more than 150 papers and 25 patent applications. Since 2020 he manages the R&D team of SMART Photonics, empowering and coaching the researchers developing the next generation InP pure foundry offering in the form of new building blocks and processes.

Thomas Gädda (CTO) is the CTO of PiBond, where he leads the teams of engineers and chemists responsible for developing new materials and processes for semiconductor and novel applications in photonics. He also oversees customer projects and product support. Prior to joining PiBond, he functioned as a Research Manager at VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland. Thomas has a +20-year experience in material development with a focus on silicon-based materials. Among materials he has developed include silicon and metal oxide based optical coatings, dielectrics, resists, and lithography hard-mask materials. He received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Southern California and MS in Chemical Engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology. Presently, he has ~30 patents and ~50 publications/proceedings.

Jörg Smolenski (Business Development Manager) graduated from RWTH Aachen and Fraunhofer ILT, holds a Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering, and has an international background spanning more than 20 years in industrial laser technology. He started as international sales manager at Lumibird in France (formerly Quantel), joined their US subsidiary to transfer product know-how, and then developed sales at High Q Laser in Austria. After 12 years with TRUMPF, he has experience in key account management, business development, laser technology, international sales and industrial laser applications including welding, marking and micromachining. Jörg joined Nanoscribe in May 2019 as Business Development Manager. In this position, he focuses on mastering and replication technologies as well as integrated photonics.

Scott Jordan (Head of Photonics) is a manager and physicist by training, with an MBA in Finance and New Venture Management. He has driven multiple business development and turnaround endeavours. Scott’s patents for fast interfacing and DAC resolution enhancement helped advance nanopositioning performance more than a hundredfold, enabling capabilities for applications as diverse as nanopatterning, atomic force microscopy, MEMS, microlithography, x-ray interferometry and photonics. He developed the first digital gradient search, fundamental to photonics test and packaging, and established a successful business upon it. He has repeatedly driven the field forward as device designs have advanced. His most recent work enables one-step, global alignment optimization across multiple inputs, outputs and degrees of freedom of today’s Silicon Photonics devices. A confirmed technology evangelist, Scott publishes and presents frequently. He was named a PI Fellow in 2016.

Hamed Sattari (Project Manager) obtained his PhD in Photonics from the University of Tabriz in 2014. He then worked as a photonic R&D engineer at NANOTAM, Bilkent University, Turkey. In 2016, he secured a Swiss government excellence scholarship for a research role at EPFL, Switzerland. At EPFL (2017-2021), he excelled in projects focused on silicon photonics and MEMS. In 2020, Hamed advanced to a senior R&D engineer at CSEM, where he managed various projects in PICs and photonic MEMS. Currently, he leads CSEM's LNOI PIC platform and coordinates the H2020 ELENA project for establishing an open LNOI PIC foundry in Europe.

Leon Hol (Managing Director) is the Managing Director NTS Optel since January 1 2022, his whole working life active in the High Tech. Starting from his study Bachelor Mechanics, he stepped into the world of Semiconductor and Photonics. Coop with several Front End and Back End OEM Customers in several roles such as Engineering, Project Management and Senior Sales Management. He was involved in the early days of EUV and Cryo technology and did several projects both in Litho, Metrology and several Back End process steps. Since January 1 2022, he started as Managing Director of NTS Optel and, together with the Management Team, set an ambitious financial and technology growth plan.

Anton Alexeev (Business Development Manager) is Business Development Manager at EV Group where he focuses on nanoimprint lithography, 3D and heterogeneous integration. Anton received his PhD in electrical engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology where he also graduated Professional Doctorate in Engineering program in physics. He has years of professional experience in the semiconductor industry. He worked on variety of technologies ranging from visible light communication via LED with Philips Lighting to optimization of the overlay performance for the leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing nodes with ASML.