management team

Management Team

Lindsay Austin
Chairman, CSO and Co-Founder, Director of Board

Lindsay Austin has over 30 years experience in companies that develop, manufacture and market lasers, optics and instrumentation.
His previous position was the President & CEO of SpectraSwitch, a start-up optical components company. Prior to this he was with JDS Uniphase where he initially served as VP Sales & Marketing and later as VP/GM of the Commercial Laser Division. He has also held senior management positions with Coherent, Lambda Physik and Spectra Physics. Lindsay earned his BS and MS degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington.

Dr Ningyi Luo
President & CEO and Co-Founder, Director of Board

Ningyi Luo, Ph.D., has worked in the lasers & optoelectronics industry for over 20 years directing development and introduction of many commercially successful photonics solutions for telecom, biotechnology, materials processing, and scientific markets.
Before starting PIC, Ningyi held senior engineering management positions at New-Wave Research, JDS Uniphase, and Continuum Electro-Optics. Ningyi started his career at the National Laboratory on High Power Lasers and Physics at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics. He received his BS and MS in Laser Physics at the University of Science and Technology in China, and his MS and PhD in Laser Physics at Texas Tech University.

Ben Zhao
Director of Board

Ben Zhao has more than 7 years of venture capital experience and has over 16 years of engineering experience in software, telecommunication industries. Ben currently leads COWIN Growth Venture Capital. Since 2004, Ben managed to invested more than 30 deals which cover many sectors, such as Software, Fabless Semiconductor, Telecom equipment, Wireless Application, Chain Operation, Pharmacy developing, and so on. By now some of the companies run well and meet the criteria of SME Capital Market or Second Capital Market£¬such as Snail Game, Qeeze. Prior to COWIN Growth Venture Capial, Ben led CSVC¡¯s(China-Singapore Suzhou Industry Park Ventures Co.)early stage investing activities. Prior to CSVC, Ben worked as investment manager in PVP(Pacific Venture Partners) for one and half years. Prior to PVP, Ben worked as a software engineer for ZhongXing Telecommunication Equipment (ZTE) and Information Department of NanJing Military Area. Ben gots a MS degree in Business Administration from NanJing University and a BS degree in Computer Application from National University of Defense Technology.

Yimin Zimmerer
Director of Board

Yimin is a Managing Director at Walden International, a leading venture capital firm with $1.9+ billion under management. Yimin focuses on venture investments in IT, clean technology and consumer sectors in China. Prior to joining Walden International, she served as Director of Marketing at Ericsson Communications, Sr. Manager of Business Development at Concert Management, and Sr. Engineer at MCI. Yimin currently serves as a member of the executive board of Shanghai Venture Capital Association, a member of the executive committee of Women In Leadership (WIL), and a member of the advisory board of Shanghai Angel Investment Club. Yimin earned an MBA from University of California at Berkeley, and an M.S. in Telecommunications and a B.A. in Psychology from University of Colorado in Boulder.

Scott Kennedy
Director, US Sales and Marketing

Scott Kennedy joined PIC in February 2010 as Director of US Sales and Marketing. He started in the laser business in 1996 and for 12 years held positions in Sales and Marketing at Spectra-Physics and Newport Corporation handling ion,diode, solid state, and ultrafast lasers. Prior to joining PIC he served as Western U.S. Sales Manager at Research Electro-Optics. Scott received a degree in Materials Science and Nuclear Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.

Dieter Gebhard
Director, European OEM Sales

Dieter Gebhard is responsible for sales and implementing PIC's products in Europe. He started at the laser business in 1992 and has more than 15 years of experience in laser sales. Prior to joining PIC, he served as Key Account Manager at JDSU in Germany. Dieter received a diploma in electrical engineering at University of Applied Sciences in Munich and is based in Eching, close to Munich in Germany.

Mark Conrado
Chief Financial Officer

Mark Conrado has over 25 years experience managing finance, administration and corporate development. Mark previously served as CFO of SpectraSwitch, Corporate Controller and CFO at The Paradigm Group, a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation, Maxoptix Corporation, a subsidiary of Maxtor Corporation and Halcyon Communication.
Mark began his career with KPMG. He has a BS degree in Commerce with an emphasis in Accounting from the Santa Clara University and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed to practice in the state of California.

Ingolf Dückminor
VP, EU Business Development

Ingolf Dückminor has accumulated more than 30 years of experience in the laser sector in Europe. Most recently he has focused independently on supporting US-based laser companies targeting demanding OEM laser markets in Europe.
Previously he headed up the European Organisation of JDSU-Lasers, as Geschäftsführer & Managing Director. Prior to that he was Managing Director of ELS-GmbH, distributing laser-based products for a number of US-based companies. He began his career on scientific applications spending more than 10 years at Spectra-Physics in Germany. Ingolf is based in Eching, Germany, 10 miles west of the Munich Airport.

William Krupke, Ph.D.
Director, Technical Advisor Board

William (Bill) Krupke received the B. S. degree in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1958), and M. A. and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1961 and 1966. He has held technical and management positions at the Hughes Aircraft, Minneapolis Honeywell, and Aerospace Corporation. In 1972, he co-founded the Laser Directorate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and served variously as Program Leader, Chief Scientist, and Deputy AssociateDirectorate during his 27-year LLNL tenure. Through the early 1980s, he participated in the design, development, and construction of evermore powerful Nd:glass lasers, and led R&D efforts on solid state, excimer, copper-vapor, and dye lasers. Since 1985, he has been engaged in development of diode-pumped high-average-power solid state lasers. He is the co-inventor of several novel enabling crystalline laser materials. In 1999, Bill left LLNL to form WFK Lasers, LLC, to consult for high tech companies such as Uniphase, Ultratech, and General Atomics, and to develop new laser-based intellectual properties. He co-founded several high tech startups (Crystal Photonics and Novalux) and serves as a technical advisor to Crystal Photonics. He also serves as a board director of IPG Photonics. Dr. Krupke is an OSA Fellow and a member of IEEE LEOS. He has served on the Board of Directors of the OSA, and as chairperson of the Quantum Electronics Division of the OSA Technical Council. He has authored or co-authored over sixty scientific publications in the field of quantum lectronics, has published several book chapters, and holds 23 patents.

Robert Hoffman, Ph.D.
Director, Technical Advisor Board

Robert A. (Bob) Hoffman has a B.S. in physics from the University of Illinois, Urbana (1968) and a Ph.D. in physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1975). He began his career in analytical instrumentation as a post doctoral fellow in the flow cytometry group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976. While at Los Alamos he also consulted for Coulter Electronics. From 1976 to 1987 he held scientific and technical management positions in flow cytometry and automated hematology at Ortho Diagnostic Systems where he helped conceive and develop several new instruments. From 1987 to 2009 he was with BD Biosciences, where he provided instrument and assay concepts and helped develop flow cytometers including the FACSCalibur, FACSCount and FACSArray. Responsibilities at BD included Director of Instrument Engineering, Director of Instrumentation Technology, and BD Fellow in the Advanced Technology Group.
Dr. Hoffman has been a member of four Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute subcommittees and has taught six continuing education courses in flow cytometry. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and an editor for Current Protocols in Cytometry. He has 18 patents and over 40 publications in the field of flow cytometry. Recent interests have focused on simpler instruments, performance characterization and improved performance standards.

Gordon Mitchard, Ph.D.
Chief Business Advisor
Director, Technical Advisor Board

Gordon Mitchard is a co-founder of Pionetics Corporation, a venture-capital-funded start-up he co-founded to provide drinking water treatment products for residential and commercial markets. He served as Chairman and CEO from 2006 until the company was acquired in 2008. From 1991 to 2005 Dr. Mitchard held general management and sales & marketing management positions at JDS Uniphase Corporation and SDL Incorporated, responsible for providing opto-electronic components to OEM customers in telecom and industrial markets. Prior to 1991, he held engineering and engineering management positions developing capital equipment for the graphics industry. Dr. Mitchard holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.