Cambridge, MA, October 21, 2004--Steve Sheng, a laser industry veteran who spent the last 25 years in various scientific and management positions at Spectra-Physics, most recently as president of the SP Laser Division, has been appointed president and CEO of OmniGuide Communications. Sheng will replace Ray Stata, founder and chairman of Analog Devices, who led OmniGuide's first round of funding, and has been acting CEO since the company's inception. Stata will continue to serve as OmniGuide's chairman of the board; Sheng will also become a member of the board.
Sheng joined Spectra-Physics' Lasers and Optics Group in 1979 as a laser physicist. He assumed increasing technical responsibilities until 1993 when he was appointed Vice President and General Manager of Spectra-Physics Laser's Ultrafast Laser Systems Business Unit, and subsequently its Industrial and Scientific Laser Business Unit. Between 2000-2002 he served as Senior VP of the Laser Group, managing multiple business units. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Applied Physics and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
"Joining OmniGuide presents me the unique opportunity to work with a group of talented people in bringing a breakthrough technology, the hollow-core OmniGuide Fiber, to the market," Sheng said. "This invention has the potential to change the photonics world."
According to Stata, OmniGuide is preparing to launch its first product, a hollow core fiber to flexibly guide CO2 laser power for a broad range of surgical procedures. The company was founded in May 2000 to commercialize patented research conducted at MIT on omnidirectional reflectors and has an exclusive license from MIT on omnidirectional reflectors.