| Algirdas Juozapavičius (left) and Martynas Barkauskas (right). (Image: Light Conversion) |
Light Conversion (Vilnius, Lithuania), a manufacturer of femtosecond lasers, optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs), and noncollinear OPAs, now has a new CEO. After 25 years of running the company, Algirdas Juozapavičius is assigning the helm to Martynas Barkauskas. Juozapavičius will continue as adviser to the company's management.
"After the intensive work that lasted a quarter of a century, time has come to devote more attention to the family and activities that I haven't had the time for," says Juozapavičius. He has been the head of Light Conversion since its inception in 1994; the business was born from research, founded by Juozapavičius, a physicist, and a few other like-minded peers.
In 2018, the company earned two innovation awards: a national one from the Lithuanian Innovation Centre, and an international prize from the Baltic Assembly and the Baltic Assembly and the Baltic Association of Science/Technology Parks and Innovation Centres.
The company's new CEO, Martynas Barkauskas, began his career in Light Conversion back in 2009, when he worked as an engineer constructor in the laser department; he later became head of the laser department's service team, and in 2014 became the head of the sales department. In 2009, he defended a thesis in the field of physical science titled "Kinetic Spectroscopy of Nonlinear Crystals and Photochromic Switches" and was awarded his doctorate.
The year 2019 is a time of change at Light Conversion -- there have been other changes in the company's management as well: appointed to the company's board were Algis Petras Piskarskas, Romualdas Danielius, Mykolas Juozapavičius, Marc Watremez, and Dominykas Vizbaras.
Light Conversion's main clients are industrial companies and scientific institutions; its key products, femtosecond lasers and their systems, are mostly exported to major global scientific and industrial centers in Germany, Japan, the US, China, and the UK. Currently, the company has dealers and partners in European, North American, and Asian countries, as well as branches in the US, China, and South Korea.
In 2013, Light Conversion moved into a new 4050 sq. m building that now houses laser and nonlinear optic device manufacturing and research departments, a cleanroom unit, and the administration. The summer of 2018 marked the inauguration of a new 2500 sq. m block where manufacture is being developed, research done, and new lasers designed. Scientific and manufacturing facility area has grown to 6500 sq. m. The company has 20 scientific and manufacturing laboratories, with nine more laboratories to be launched in the nearest future.
Source: http://lightcon.com/news.html