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 Management and Board |
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 Management Team |
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| Bruno Berge Chief Technical Officer and Founder |
Pr Bruno Berge is Varioptic Founder and Chief Scientific Officer. He is responsible for Research & technology programs.
Pr. 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 . He has been appointed as a senior Physicists at CNRS and full professor at Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, before founding Varioptic for developing optical consumer solutions using electrowetting
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| Christian Dupont - Chief Executive Officer |
| Christian Dupont joined Varioptic as CEO in August 2007. Prior to taking his position, Christian was Director of Texas Instruments’ European Wireless Terminals Business Unit (WTBU) with overall management responsibility including design, application, product engineering, business planning and marketing. Mr Dupont originally joined TI in 1988, where he held several senior management positions in France. He was also Director for TI's Americas Wireless Communications Business at the worldwide TI headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Christian graduated from the “Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)”, Switzerland in 1987.
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| Jean-Christophe Robert - VP Research and Development |
Jean-Christophe Robert brings to Varioptic over twenty years’ experience in the imaging business. Before joining Varioptic, Jean-Christophe was head of Research and Development at Kodak Industrie. His revitalization of innovation policy there prompted a comprehensive shift in the company’s research portfolio away from conventional photography to digital projects.
On graduating as an engineer from the Paris Higher School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry (ESPCI), Jean-Christophe joined the Kodak group in 1983 as head of video R&D. He then led research programmes into new optical materials, before being appointed to the Eastman Kodak Company’s research unit in the USA. He went on to head the Photographic Research Laboratory, prior to becoming Director of Research and Development.
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| Laurent Samama - Chief Sales Officer |
| Former Managing Director of Nokia France, Laurent Samama has held senior management positions for over 10 years in major international groups, including Lucent Technologies and Nokia. He began his career at France Telecom, where he spent five years in international development. For the past three years, he has been supporting overseas development for French hi-tech start-ups. Laurent Samama earned his Engineering degree at Telecom Paris. He was awarded the French Information Technology Manager prize in 1998. |
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| John Barber - VP Marketing |
| John Barber joined Varioptic from TTPCommunciations where he was Managing Director of the Terminals Business - a "virtual" mobile phone developer. Before this, as Chief Commercial Officer, he led the commercial development of Cambridge Positioning Systems from conception to become the world's leading provider of E-OTD location technology to mobile network equipment and handset vendors. He joined CPS from Nokia where he was deputy MD of the UK network business. Before that he worked in business development for Cable & Wireless in the UK and Europe, as a management consultant for Deloitte & Touche, as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, and started as an engineer with Rolls Royce. |
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| Philippe Prat - VP Operation |
| Dr-Eng. Philippe Prat received his PhD in Mechanics of the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA Lyon) in 1997. He started his career as a researcher in the lubrication for Space applications in France and later in Japan. He then joined Unaxis Displays (Now OC Oerlikon) in Switzerland to lead the development of large area PECVD deposition equipments. He then successfully occupied in Taiwan, the positions of Systems Engineering Manager and Head of Engineering in Asia. Dr-Eng. Philippe Prat brings in Varioptic a very broad technical experience and a profound knowledge of Asia, acquired through his 5 years presence in Japan and Taiwan and multiple projects in Korea and China. A native French speaker, Philippe also speaks English, German, Japanese and has a basic knowledge of Chinese. |
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| Bernard Reymann, Chief Financial Officer |
Mr. Reymann has 19 years of financial experience, holding a series of progressively responsible positions in electronics and food companies. Prior to joining Varioptic, Bernard was CFO at Temex, an electronic components firm. In addition to his role, he was a member of the company's board.
Mr. Reymann holds a Diplome d'Ingénieur Commercial IES, with a specialization in audit and financial control, and has advanced financial training from IHFI (Institut de Haute Finance) and DECF.
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| Board |
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| Howard Ford , Chairman of the Board |
Howard Ford brings to Varioptic an outstanding business track record and extensive experience across several industries. Currently non-executive Chairman of Servista Ltd., Howard started his c areer at IBM Europe where he held several positions, including General Manager of IBM's European PC business before joining BT/Cellnet (now O2), a UK-based mobile phone operator as Chief Executive.
From 1997, Howard Ford served at Equant as President for Europe, Middle East and Africa , responsible for Global Sales, Marketing and Professional & Consulting Services, becoming Managing Director in 2002 In April 2005 he retired from the Board of Equant.
Howard served on the board of Radianz, a joint venture between Reuters and Equant until it was sold to BT in 2004, and on the board of QA Training and as the Chairman of the Thames Valley TEC (Training and Enterprise Council), which managed government funds of approx ￡30m pa for the vocational training of young people in the Thames Valley. He is also Chairman of the Branshaw Foundation, an educational charitable trust.
A native of the UK , Howard earned a BSc and MSc in Chemical Engineering from Christ's College, Cambridge .
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| 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 . |
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| Curt Gunsenheimer |
Curt Gunsenheimer is a partner at Iris Capital, where he focuses on investments in the software and communications industries. Prior to joining Iris Capital in 2002, he was Vice President at Robertson Stephens International, the European division of the San Francisco-based technology investment bank. He was responsible for the European software and technology services sectors and participated in numerous IPOs, private placements and M&A; transactions involving emerging European and US technology companies. Previously, he worked at Goldman Sachs in London, advising on corporate finance and M&A; transactions for leading European and US firms in wireless telephony, cable, technology and media. Curt studied at ESSEC (Paris), Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently on the boards of LightSand Communications, Smart Trade, Varioptic and Xcalia
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| Alain Rodermann |
| Alain Rodermann holds a master of science from Supelec in electrical engineering and an MBA from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. Alain began his career in 1990 with IB2 Technologies, a Bouygues/IBM joint venture focused on smart buildings. From 1991 to 1997, he led developments of command and intelligence systems at Alcatel Telecom. In 1997, he started with Innovacom (France Telecom's venture capital division) where he made seed investments and sat on the boards of Netvalue (IPO and sold to Nielsen) and Lastminute.com (LSE:LMN). With Sofinnova Partners since 1999, he has notably invested at the very early stage in (and/or be board member of) Atomz (NASDAQ:WSSI), Emailvision (ALEMV), Maximiles (ALMAX), Servista, Varioptic, Oxxius and Revolt and Wyplay. He focuses on disruptive technologies. |
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| Dirk Kanngiesser |
Dirk Kanngiesser is a founder and Managing Partner of PolyTechnos. He has over 13 years of venture capital experience in Europe . Previously, he worked for eight years as a venture capitalist for Baring Private Equity Partners (BPEP). As a Senior Partner in Europe , he was responsible for German operations and overlooked high-technology investments in German-speaking countries. Prior to joining BPEP, he served in Brand Management for Procter & Gamble and Project Engineering at Siemens for a nuclear power project.
Dirk is a board member of a number of high-tech companies. He has also served on the board of venture capital funds such as Capricorn Venture Partners and the EuroMerchant Balkan Fund. Dirk is a member of the EVCA High Tech Committee.
Dirk received his degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany . He received his MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor .
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| Peter Tan |
| A veteran in the electronics industry, Peter Tan brings to Varioptic more than three decades of manufacturing, operations and supply chain expertise acquired in Asia. Peter Tan was President and Managing Director of Flextronics in Asia, one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturing services provider, until June 2007. Prior to Flextronics, Peter served as Managing Director, Asia-Pacific Operations for Apple, and at Molex Singapore. Peter Tan spent also eighteen years with National Semiconductor Asia Pacific, where he held various positions in manufacturing, materials management, operations management and product line planning in the South Asia region.
Today, Peter Tan is a founder member and Managing Partner of JP Asia Capital Partners, specialized on investments that creates synergistic value between US and European technology and Asian manufacturing and market opportunities. He is also a board member of Vaccumschmelze, Dialog Semiconductor and GISIL Devices. Peter holds a Graduate Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business and received an Executive MBA from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.
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