The Supervisory Board of Jenoptik (Jena, Germany) has appointed Stefan Traeger as the future Chairman of the company’s Executive Board for a term of three years. Traeger (age 49), currently a member of the Management Board of the Swiss Tecan Group, will succeed Michael Mertin, who did not seek an extension of his Executive Board employment contract, which expires on June 30, 2017.
Matthias Wierlacher, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Jenoptik, noted, “With Dr. Traeger we have attracted an internationally experienced manager with an impressive and successful career who is also familiar with the subjects of Jenoptik. We are looking forward to the collaboration with him.”
The Supervisory Board thanked Michael Mertin for the success he has achieved in strategically realigning Jenoptik. Stefan Traeger is expected to take over his post in the second quarter of 2017. He will manage the Jenoptik Group together with Hans-Dieter Schumacher (age 53), who has been the Chief Financial Officer of Jenoptik since April 2015.
Stefan Traeger holds a PhD and has extensive management experience in a variety of executive positions in the photonics industry. Since 2013 he has been a member of the Management Board of the Swiss Tecan Group AG and manages the global end-customer business combined in the Division Life Sciences.
Previously he served as Managing Director of Leica Microsystems CMS and was Vice President & General Manager for the company’s global Life Science Division. From 2000 through 2007 he held a number of positions with increasing management responsibility in various areas within the Carl Zeiss Group, most recently as Director Strategic Business Development of Carl Zeiss Meditec and Managing Director of Carl Zeiss SMT. He studied physics at the University of Hanover and has an MBA from Purdue University.
Conard Holton
Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.