Varioptic

Team

Bruno Berge : Founder, President

Dr. Berge received his Ph.D in physics from the University of Grenoble, and did two years of post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago, under the leadership of Dr. Albert Libchabert, renowned for his achievements in Chaos Theory.

Dr. Berge's pioneering work in electrowetting, culminated in publication of "Title?" in 1993, reestablished this field of applied physics, which had languished since the 1930s. Electrowetting is now a burgeoning field, and Dr. Berge's foundational work and deep understanding of the underlying principals gives Varioptic a substantial competitive advantage against companies attempting to use electrowetting in optics. Dr. Berge cemented this advantage by securing the two basic patents behind the iLens, as described in the Intellectual Property section above.

Dr. Berge serves as President and CTO of Varioptic. He is responsible for overseeing R&D and collaborates with Mr. Paillard in setting the strategic direction of the Company. His research continues to generate intellectual property for Varioptic, and his refinements and variations on the iLens position it as the appropriate solution in a broad range of industrial and consumer applications. A full CV of Dr. Berge is attached.

Etienne Paillard: CEO

With a degree in engineering, an MBA from INSEAD, substantial management experience, and a record of success in achieving revenue growth and profitability, Mr. Paillard has the right combination of characteristics to lead Varioptic.

Before joining Varioptic, Mr. Paillard held a series of increasingly responsible positions at Tekelec Airtronics, culminating in CEO of Temex, an 800 person subsidiary of the electronic component manufacturer. At Temex, Mr. Paillard:

  • Led the acquisition of Thales Microsonics,
  • Managed a substantial reorganization that put the subsidiary on track to profitability
    in a difficult environment
  • Created an international sales force
  • Engineered a successful turn-around of the microwave business unit

Prior to running Temex, Mr. Paillard was Deputy COO with responsibility for the company's Pessac business unit. Under Mr. Paillard's leadership, Pessac grew in revenue from 10 M€ to 50 M€. He established the unit as a major supplier to the cellular infrastructure market and brought it to profitability from a substantial loss position. Among customers and within Tekelec, "Pessac" became a synonym for profitability, quality, customer care, and on-time delivery.

Prior to his work at Tekelec, Mr. Paillard held positions at Thomson (now Thales), Corning, and Texas Instruments.

Joshua Hong, Business Development

Mr. Hong has 15 years of technical sales and marketing experience in electronic components. Over the past five years, he has focused on imaging and optical electronics, in a series of positions with Agilent and Hewlett Packard. For Agilent, he worked with Asian customers to support digital imaging products,
interfacing with many of the same companies that Varioptic now targets. Mr. Hong has a background in electronics design, working for Hewlett Packard and Samsung, among other companies. He holds an MA in electrical engineering from HanYang Graduate School, Seoul, Korea.

Board of Directors

Luc O. Bauer Ph.D

Dr. Bauer has served for more than 30 years in various executive positions in several high technology companies, in the US, and Europe, often as a founder, member of the board, president. Among those were Hana Microdisplay Technology, SVISION, nCHIP, Integrated Device Technology, and Eurosil/Intersil. Starting with an engineering education in Switzerland, BS, Physics, Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, and in the US, M.S., Ph.D., Engineering Science, Caltech, Pasadena, his early responsibilities were technical in nature to cover later all aspects of high technology business: manufacturing, finance, marketing/sales, and general management.

Since returning in Europe in December 2001, he became board member and mentor to a number of local high technology companies with focus in microelectronics, display, and lately micro- and nano-technologies with and without biotechnology aspects, working on the development of infrastructures necessary for their successful developments. This means working with local authorities, universities, and the financial community, especially venture capitalist groups and banks. Among those companies, in Switzerland : Seyonic, Microsens Products, Space-X, Innovative Silicon Solutions, Zeptosens, and lately Varioptic in Lyon , France . He is also board member of Neode, the new Canton of Neuchatel Science and Technology Park .

Alain Blancquart

Mr. Blancquart has over 30 years of experience in the IT industry. He was the founder of several successful companies, including Micropro, Europe (the Wordstar company) and Borland International, Europe . He is now the CEO of Esmertec, the leading company in the field of Java based software for mobile telephones. Prior to joining Esmertec, he served as Vice President and General Manager at Openwave and at Global Knowledge, the world's largest independent IT training company. Alain Blancquart holds a B.S in Electronic Engineering from Ecole Centrale Electronique of Paris ( France ).

Alain Rodermann

Mr. Rodermann is a partner at Sofinnova, where he focuses on investment in information technology. He started with Sofinnova Partners in April 1999. He graduated from Supélec in electrical engineering and holds an MBA from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris . Alain began his career in 1990 with IB2 Technologies (a Bouygues/IBM joint venture). From 1991 to 1997, he headed a team dedicated to making command and intelligence systems at Alcatel Telecom. In 1997, he started with Innovacom (France Telecom's venture capital division) as investment manager where he made seed investments and sat on the boards of Netvalue and Lastminute.com which went public. With Sofinnova Partners, he has notably invested in Atomz, Servista, Tak'Asic and Varioptic.

 

Varioptic: a new focus for optics

Autofocus lenses

Based on its patented electrowetting technology, Varioptic introduces the first commercially available electrically controllable optical lenses.

Zooms

The combination of various Varioptic tunable lenses enables the development of Zooms with no moving parts.

Technology Assessment Program (TAP):

A sound way to discover Varioptic technology and start designing with it.

Custom products

Based on volume and specification, custom products can be proposed and developed.

Varioptic
Bâtiment Tony Garnier - 8 B Rue Hermann Frenkel
69007 Lyon France
Tél. + 33 (0)4 37 65 35 31
Email: [email protected]