October 5, 2012—The season of change is upon us. Numerous optics and photonics firms have made changes to their upper management this week:
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TRUMPF Laser Marking Systems AG (Grüsch, Switzerland) announced on October 5 the appointment of Andreas Conzelmann to the position of general manager, succeeding Eckhard Meiners who moved up to CEO of the medical technology company TRUMPF Medical Systems (Ditzingen, Germany). Conzelmann started with TRUMPF as a development engineer in 2002, moved to manage the customer service section in 2007 and has headed the sales and services department since 2010.
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On October 4, fiber laser company IPG Photonics Corporation (Oxford, Mass., U.S.A.) announced the appointment of John R. Peeler, chairman and CEO of molecular-beam epitaxy equipment supplier Veeco Instruments (Plainview, N.Y., U.S.A.), to the IPG Photonics Board of Directors. Peeler has been CEO of Veeco since July 2007 and was named chairman of its board in May of 2012. The company also announced that Board member William F. Krupke will withdraw from the elected Board as of the 2013 annual shareholder meeting after 12 years of service.
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NeoPhotonics (San Jose, Calif., U.S.A.) announced on October 3 that former president of JDSU and Optical Coating Laboratory, Charles J. (“Jay”) Abbe, has been appointed to the NeoPhotonics Board of Directors. With a long career at numerous technology firms, Abbe has also served as has served as a director of semiconductor capital equipment company Cymer (San Diego) since 2002.
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Spectrometer manufacturer Ocean Optics (Dunedin, Fla., U.S.A.) announced October 3 the appointment of Richard Pollard as the company's new president. He succeeds Kevin Chittim, who moved to the position of divisional acquisition executive for parent company Halma plc (Amersham Bucks, England). Pollard started at Ocean Optics as vice president, operations in 2006 and has been chief operating officer since 2008.