Board Members
Richard T. Simko, Chairman of the Board
Mr. Simko has co-founded and served on the boards of directors of three public companies (Xicor, Information Storage Devices and Spectranetics). The first two are semiconductor companies. Spectranetics is a laser medical company. He has participated in fundraising at the private, corporate and venture levels for these companies, as well as other startups in which he is currently an investor. He holds 25 patents in the semiconductor field.
John B. Anderson
Mr. Anderson served as President and CEO of the Company from October 28, 1998 to July 31, 2004 and has served as a director since its inception. From 1989 to 1995, he served as Vice President, Finance and Administration, for Diversey Equipment Technologies.
Dr. Robert L. Byer
Dr. Byer was elected a director of the Company in 1998. He is Director of the Center for Nonlinear Optical Materials and of the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory at Stanford University. He was Chairman of the Applied Physics Department at Stanford from 1981 to 1984, Associate Dean of Humanities and Sciences from 1985 to 1987, and Vice-Provost and Dean of Research from 1987 to 1992. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and holds 35 patents. His accomplishments include the Quantum Electronics Award of the Lasers and Electro-optics Society of the IEEE; Guest Professor, Tshinghua University, Beijing, China; Sloan Fellow; Adolf Lomb Medal of the Optical Society of America; and IBM Fellow. He is past President of Lasers and Electro-optics Society of the IEEE and the Optical Society of America, and is currently a member of the Education Committee of the Optical Society of America and the Engineering Advisory Committee of the National Science Foundation.
Ray J. Noel
Mr. Noel has served as president and CEO of the Company since 2004. Mr. Noel is an experienced entrepreneur and business manager, having founded several startups and a nonprofit environmental and biotech new-business incubator. Most recently he was CEO, CFO and Business Development Manager of Interact Devices, Inc., where he raised in excess of $5,000,000 in institutional and angel equity funding, secured and managed a joint venture with Electricite de France, the world’s largest utility, and coordinated the eventual sale of the company. Mr. Noel founded heavily venture-backed ELF Technologies, Inc. He previously was a marketing and business center manager at Raychem Corporation and served as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy.
Kohei Yamashita
Mr. Yamashita is President and CEO of Kokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd., a Japanese corporation. Kokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd., was the lead investor in the sales of the Company’s Preferred Stock.