Anthony Kewitsch
CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder
Dr. Kewitsch has 20 years of high-tech startup experience developing fiber optic switching products through conception, product development and qualification, marketing and sales. Previously, he co-founded Arroyo Optics Inc., a VC funded developer of wavelength selective switches and add/drop multiplexers for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM).
At Arroyo he served as a Member of the Board and as Vice President of Research and Development from 1995 to 2005. He is currently a Member of the Board of Directors of Telaris Inc., a high power laser company he previously co-founded. He received a B.S. in electrical engineering with distinction from Stanford University in 1991 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1993 and 1995. He was an Eastman Kodak Scholar and an ONR, NSF, Tau Beta Pi and Caltech Special Institute Fellow. Dr. Kewitsch holds approximately 50 patents and is the author of over 25 research papers.
Amnon Yariv
Co-founder, Director
Amnon Yariv is an Israeli-American professor of applied physics and electrical engineering at Caltech, known for innovations in optoelectronics. In 2010, Yariv was selected as a winner of the National Medal of Science for "scientific and engineering contributions to photonics and quantum electronics that have profoundly impacted lightwave communications and the field of optics as a whole.” He has also been selected to receive the IEEE Photonics Award for 2011. Yariv is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. In 1985 he was awarded the Harold Pender Award by the University of Pennsylvania. In 1992 he was awarded the Harvey Prize by the Technion in Haifa, Israel, for "Pioneering contributions to optoelectronics, wave propagation in crystals and nonlinear and phase conjugate optics, and his demonstration of semiconductor-based integrated optics technology leading to the development of high-speed and stable solid state lasers.” Yariv has authored several texts on optical electronics and photonics.
The highlight of his group's work was the invention of the semiconductor distributed feedback laser, a device widely used in the Internet's fiber-optic communications. Prof. Yariv co-founded Ortel Corp. (formerly Nasdaq: ORTL), which was subsequently acquired by Lucent for ~$3B.
Russ Johnson
Director
Russ Johnson is currently a partner with KPLJ Ventures and works with early-stage companies developing promising new technologies, particularly those technologies in complex electronic, optical, and semiconductor products. Since entering the investment community, Russ has been involved in the management and financing of startup companies in a wide variety of technologies and markets. Through the board-level assignments, he has been instrumental in helping companies develop products leading to successful exits either through IPOs or acquisitions. He has served on numerous private and public company boards.
From May 1998 through September 2000 Russ served as the Senior Vice-President of Global Sales and Marketing for JDS Uniphase. During that period he was responsible for the formation of a worldwide sales organization and an integrated marketing program as well as playing an active role in companies’ M&A activities. Prior to joining JDS Uniphase Russ spent over twenty years with the Hewlett Packard Company (now Agilent Technologies) in a variety of marketing, operational, and international business roles. Russ has a BSEE from New Mexico State University and an MBA from Purdue University. He also serves on the boards of several non-profits like the Pacific Research Institute.
Mark Ozur
Mark’s 40+ year career has traversed system software architecture & development as well as executive technology management, having held senior roles in ambitious start-ups and Fortune 500 corporations such as Microsoft, Digital Equipment and PulsePoint. His product contributions have influenced a broad set of technologies including operating systems, distributed computing, telecommunications, security, data visualization and enterprise applications. He is a named inventor on several U.S. Patents in a number of these areas.
Mark recently concluded his career with Microsoft’s Cloud + AI group leading the Azure Engineering effort to drive large, game-changing cloud projects to Microsoft Azure. Prior to Microsoft, he was CEO and Chief Technical Officer of NASDAQ-traded PulsePoint Communications (aka Digital Sound), one of the leading carrier-based voicemail, and unified messaging companies. Between Microsoft and PulsePoint, Mark co-founded and served as CEO of Cloud startup PredictableIT, LLC and was CTO at edge2net, a VoIP telecom services provider.
Mark has served on several public and venture capital-funded Boards of Directors. He is an accomplished lecturer, having taught at the University of California Santa Barbara’s School of Engineering, Technology Management Program.
Gary Spiegel
Director
Gary Spiegel was previously the Senior Vice President of Business Development for Newport Corporation a global Photonics technology company listed on NASDAQ now part of the MKSI corporation. He has been associated with the Laser and Photonics industry for more than 45 years. Mr. Spiegel is a marketing graduate of Baruch College in New York City. He has completed continuing education programs in laser technology at NYU and executive education programs at UCLA Anderson School of Business. Prior to joining Newport Corporation in 1991, Gary held senior management positions with Klinger Scientific a subsidiary of Micro-Controle France. At Newport, Gary has held a variety of executive positions including Vice President of Global Sales, Service, and Marketing. Prior to retiring in 2016 he led Newport’s strategic business development / Mergers and Acquisitions agenda. Gary is a member of the OSA where he was one of the founding organizers of the OSA’s Executive Forum on Optical Fiber Communications. He is a Fellow of the SPIE and previously served as the Secretary and Treasurer for the SPIE . He currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Luna Innovations Inc. (NASDAQ: LUNA) a fiber optics technology company.
Vijay Vusirikala
Director
Vijay Vusirikala is a distinguished leader in network engineering and optical technologies. Currently, he serves as Vice President of Global Network Engineering at an AI infrastructure stealth startup, focusing on datacenter and backbone networking technologies.
Previously, Vijay spent over 14 years at Google in senior technical and organizational leadership roles. He led network technology teams, overseeing the development and productionization of the network stack from dataplane to observability plane. His work delivered unparalleled scale, reliability, and cost structure in one of the world's largest networks.
At Google, Vijay served as Head of Optical and Submarine Technologies and Network Software Systems. He pioneered multiple optical industry firsts in hyperscale networks, including Open and Disaggregated Transport, Open Subsea Cables, Wideband Line Systems, Subsea Space Division Multiplexing, Optical Zero Touch Networking, Data Center Interconnect, and Universal Transport Platforms.
Vijay serves on the Advisory Board for the ECE Department at the University of Maryland, and the Long Range Planning Committee for OFC conference.
Before Google, Vijay held senior roles at Infinera, Motorola, and Sycamore Networks, covering core, metro, and access products. His expertise spans network architecture, product management, executive marketing, and business development.
Vijay has published extensively, with 75+ journal and conference papers, and holds 17+ patents in optical components, systems, and networks. He earned a BS in Electronics and Communications Engineering from IIT Madras and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.