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Team Opel
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The Company's management team, as well as its core team of researchers, is composed of experienced and talented individuals who have worked closely on a number of business and technical projects. Their collective expertise is truly impressive and includes experience in the areas of GaAs processes, photonics and opto-electronics, new generation conductivity materials, laser development, technology commercialization, new product development, marketing, operations, financial management, and corporate strategy in start-up, emerging and mature businesses.
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Robert G Pico,
Chief Executive Officer
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Mr. Pico has a breadth of corporate experience that spans more than 30 years in engineering, sales, business development, program management and operations. He most recently was vice president of business development at TranSwitch Corporation ( NASDAQ- TXCC) where he worked for more than 10 years. While at TXCC he was VP Sales, VP Major Accounts and Business Development. During his tenure he led all M&A activity, initialization of start up companies through seed funding for companies that include Teraop, Optix, IC4IC, SOSI, Onex, Accordion Networks, and others. Mr. Pico has successfully lead the acquisition team for TXCC on the purchase of a number of US and European companies such as ADV in France, Easics in Belgium, Horizon and ASIC design in the US among others. During his tenure as VP Sales and Major accounts he had complete financial responsibility for the establishment of all TXCC worldwide sales channels which included NA, Europe, Asia and Israel . During this time he and his team grew sales from $1 mil per year to more than $20 mil and laid the foundation for TXCC sales ramp to $155 mil. He and the top TXCC management team successfully took it thru the IPO process on NASDAQ in 1995. Mr. Pico has been a board member of most of the companies noted above.
Mr. Pico also sits on a number of Biotech NASDAQ listed companies doing research in the promising area of stem cells.
Prior to TXCC Mr. Pico worked for 10 years at ITT Corporation where he among other positions headed up their worldwide ASIC corporate contracting group for telecommunications. This work spanned all European and North American operations. The contracting group was responsible for $500 mil of electronic devices for the telecom divisions. He was responsible for all the process equipment purchases of ITT's main domestic CMOS fabrication facility of ASIC devices.
Mr. Pico began his career as an engineer at a division of United Technologies. He progressed thru various roles. At United including Operations program management and all electronic procurement for the Boeing 747-400 program, the NAVY F-18 carrier Hornet and early the Air Force F-15 fighter.
Mr. Pico holds a BSEE and MS Physics from University of Hartford and Trinity Collage respectively and in addition has completed all his requirements for his MBA in Marketing from the University of Hartford .
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Leon Pierhal,
President & Chief Operating Officer
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Mr. Pierhal has nearly thirty-five years of management experience in telecommunications and computing technology development companies. As a senior management executive, Mr. Pierhal has had direct responsibility for P&L, sales and marketing, and corporate development for several major companies requiring. He has experience with capitalizing and launching technology startups, mergers and acquisitions of technology companies, as well as turning around emerging companies by developing new sales divisions, channels and strategic partners. Mr. Pierhal has assisted a significant number of companies with capital formation and re-capitalization from private and public sources. He contributed exceptional strategic and tactical vision, strong team development and leadership skills. In addition, Mr. Pierhal has impressive experience in the area of technology startup company development.
As Vice President of Sales for the Communications Division of Amdahl Corporation, Mr. Pierhal expanded sales by 20 percent by restructuring the sales force and securing major new customers. As Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Jupiter Technology, he doubled sales in two years and was instrumental in arranging the sale of the company to Intel for nearly three times gross sales. While he was President of the Commercial Systems Division of Masstor Corporation, Mr. Pierhal successfully drove sales to the highest level in the company's history while re-establishing company profitability.
Mr. Pierhal has also assisted various client companies in raising capital, securing and structuring mergers and acquisitions, positioning companies for initial public offerings, restoring profitability and developing new markets.
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Michael C. McCoy
Chief Financial Officer
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Mr. McCoy was a founder of TranSwitch Corporation, a U.S. semi-conductor company, serving as its Vice President and Controller from 1988 to 2001 and most recently serving as its Corporate Secretary from 1988 to February 2006, as well as serving as a board member of TranSwitch India and TranSwitch Switzerland. Prior to TranSwitch, Mr. McCoy was a Divisional Controller with ITT Corporation. His 30 years of financial experience includes extensive experience with public company SEC and NASDAQ reporting, as well as securing venture capital, public, bank and government agency financing. Mr. McCoy’s education includes a BS/BA from Kent State University.
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Frank Middleton
Vice President of Marketing
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Mr. Middleton has over thirty years of international experience in general management, marketing, engineering and VLSI production. His expertise includes formulating product strategies, new product concepts, product business plans, product development and taking products to market. Since 2003, Mr. Middleton has been a Managing Partner at Renoir Asset Management, a private partnership investing in real estate in Connecticut.
From 1990 through 2003 while at TranSwitch Corporation, Mr. Middleton held various Vice President level positions in Engineering, Operations, Sales and Marketing. Most recently, Mr. Middleton was responsible for marketing products to the major telecom equipment manufacturers worldwide, including joint product development strategies, partnerships and relationships with those customers at the technical and commercial levels. His experience and achievements also include extensive interaction with the financial community: in the year 2000 he was a key contributor in helping the company raise $460 million in a convertible bond offering.
Prior to his work at TranSwitch Corporation, Mr. Middleton was General Manager of the Electronic Products Division at Yale Security in Charlotte, NC. In this capacity, he was responsible for the engineering, marketing, sales, and servicing of all products in the division. His P&L responsibilities included the North American, United Kingdom, Swedish and Italian operations. Under his direction, Yale Security introduced a number of “industry first” products in the electronic security field.
Mr. Middleton began his career at ITT Corporation where he held positions of progressively increasing responsibility over a period of fifteen years. His last responsibility was as Director of Applied Technology Development, where he provided technical and project leadership to a department of 60 engineers in the development. As Manager of Hardware Design, he was responsible for completing the development of the hardware development of ITT’s digital switch: System 12, a multipurpose, large capacity digital switching system employing distributed control for worldwide application. System 12 became the flagship telephony product for ITT worldwide and later for Alcatel.
Mr. Middleton received a Bachelor of Science degree from the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City and he has been awarded twenty US patents in the telecommunications field.
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Dr. Geoff Taylor,
Chief Scientist
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Dr. Taylor possesses an extraordinary technical background made-up of thirty years of design and development experience in electronic and optical device physics, circuit design, opto-electronics technology, materials and applications. Dr. Taylor has published more than 140 papers related to these areas in the world's most respected journals.
Dr. Taylor is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Photonics at the University of Connecticut and is responsible for their gallium arsenide growth and fabrication facility. At the University, Dr. Taylor has trained 14 doctoral students specializing in GaAs device physics who are now employed by world-class firms such as Motorola, JPL and Hughes Research. Dr. Taylor is widely regarded as the world's leading authority on gallium arsenide solid-state physics as well as the pioneer in the development of monolithic integrated circuits for opto-electronics for which he holds an abundance of device inventions. He is also widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts in III-V opto technology. Prior to his current role, Dr. Taylor served as a Distinguished Member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Labs (in both Holmdel and Murray Hill, New Jersey) developing inversion channel device technology for III-V materials. While working with Honeywell and Texas Instruments he helped to develop the CCD technology for the Jupiter Orbital Probe as well as the development of NMOS circuits and devices for VLSI chips.
Dr. Taylor holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Queens University . Dr. Taylor is a member of OSA, SPIE, LEOS and an IEEE Fellow.
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Robert Pico
Chief Executive Officer |
Mr. Pico has a breadth of corporate experience that spans more than 30 years in engineering, sales, business development, program management and operations. He most recently was vice president of business development at TranSwitch Corporation ( NASDAQ- TXCC) where he worked for more than 10 years. While at TXCC he was VP Sales, VP Major Accounts and Business Development. During his tenure he led all M&A activity, initialization of start up companies through seed funding for companies that include Teraop, Optix, IC4IC, SOSI, Onex, Accordion Networks, and others. Mr. Pico has successfully lead the acquisition team for TXCC on the purchase of a number of US and European companies such as ADV in France, Easics in Belgium, Horizon and ASIC design in the US among others. During his tenure as VP Sales and Major accounts he had complete financial responsibility for the establishment of all TXCC worldwide sales channels which included NA, Europe, Asia and Israel . During this time he and his team grew sales from $1 mil per year to more than $20 mil and laid the foundation for TXCC sales ramp to $155 mil. He and the top TXCC management team successfully took it thru the IPO process on NASDAQ in 1995. Mr. Pico has been a board member of most of the companies noted above.
Mr. Pico also sits on a number of Biotech NASDAQ listed companies doing research in the promising area of stem cells.
Prior to TXCC Mr. Pico worked for 10 years at ITT Corporation where he among other positions headed up their worldwide ASIC corporate contracting group for telecommunications. This work spanned all European and North American operations. The contracting group was responsible for $500 mil of electronic devices for the telecom divisions. He was responsible for all the process equipment purchases of ITT's main domestic CMOS fabrication facility of ASIC devices.
Mr. Pico began his career as an engineer at a division of United Technologies. He progressed thru various roles. At United including Operations program management and all electronic procurement for the Boeing 747-400 program, the NAVY F-18 carrier Hornet and early the Air Force F-15 fighter.
Mr. Pico holds a BSEE and MS Physics from University of Hartford and Trinity Collage respectively and in addition has completed all his requirements for his MBA in Marketing from the University of Hartford .
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Leon Pierhal
President and Chief Operating Officer |
Mr. Pierhal has nearly thirty-five years of management experience in telecommunications and computing technology development companies. As a senior management executive, Mr. Pierhal has had direct responsibility for P&L, sales and marketing, and corporate development for several major companies requiring. He has experience with capitalizing and launching technology startups, mergers and acquisitions of technology companies, as well as turning around emerging companies by developing new sales divisions, channels and strategic partners. Mr. Pierhal has assisted a significant number of companies with capital formation and re-capitalization from private and public sources. He contributed exceptional strategic and tactical vision, strong team development and leadership skills. In addition, Mr. Pierhal has impressive experience in the area of technology startup company development.
As Vice President of Sales for the Communications Division of Amdahl Corporation, Mr. Pierhal expanded sales by 20 percent by restructuring the sales force and securing major new customers. As Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Jupiter Technology, he doubled sales in two years and was instrumental in arranging the sale of the company to Intel for nearly three times gross sales. While he was President of the Commercial Systems Division of Masstor Corporation, Mr. Pierhal successfully drove sales to the highest level in the company's history while re-establishing company profitability.
Mr. Pierhal has also assisted various client companies in raising capital, securing and structuring mergers and acquisitions, positioning companies for initial public offerings, restoring profitability and developing new markets.
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Denis Colbourne
Director
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Mr. Colbourne, has over 40 years of experience in the high technology industry. Currently President and CEO of DC-Technologies Ltd., he has expertise in business operations, technology transfer and industry-government liaison, with a focus on high-tech restructuring and turnarounds. Mr. Colbourne’s clients include The World Bank, various investment banks and the Canadian and Ontario Governments.
Mr. Colbourne is Chairman of Spectalis Inc. (Ottawa), and a member of the board of several other high-tech companies, including SiGe Semiconductor Inc., International Datacasting Inc and Wi-LAN (Calgary).
Prior to retiring from Nortel in December 1998, Mr. Colbourne served as Vice President and General Manager of Nortel Semiconductors, operator of Canada’s largest IC wafer fabrication facility. Nortel Semiconductors was a full service provider, offering a complete range of silicon design, prototyping, manufacturing, technology development and IC analytical capabilities. He was also Chairman of Shanghai Nortel Semiconductor (SNS), a Nortel joint venture based in
Shanghai. During his career, Mr. Colbourne held several other senior positions with Nortel Networks. He was General Manager of Nortel’s IC wafer fabrication facility in San Diego, California, as well as Vice President of Supply Management. In addition, he served as Vice President of Marketing and Engineering for Bowmar Canada, a consumer electronics company.
Mr. Colbourne holds a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Memorial University of Newfoundland, a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario. As an outside director, Mr. Colbourne will devote his time to the business and affairs of OPEL International as required, which is expected to be less than 5% of his time.
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Larry R. Kunkel
Director
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Over the past 25 years, Mr. Kunkel has been the Chief Economist and Director of Corporate
Strategy for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, New York Life Insurance Company and
Ryan Edwards Global Strategic Advisors. In addition, he has completed dozens of consulting
projects for corporate, educational, cultural, governmental and institutional clients in the United
States, Europe and the Caribbean. Mr. Kunkel has 13 academic and professional publications to
his credit in the areas of economics, law and economics, and corporate strategy. During his career,
Mr. Kunkel has been involved in over 150 mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Kunkel received his A.B Degree with Honors in Economics from Providence College and his
A.M. Degree in Social Sciences (Economics) from The University of Chicago. While at The University
of Chicago, he was the Research Assistant to George J. Stigler, the 1982 recipient of the
Noble Prize in Economics.
In addition to serving as a Director of OPEL, Inc., Mr. Kunkel also serves as a Director and Chief
Financial Officer for Modular Thermal Technologies, Sea Con Phoenix and American Strategic
Holdings, LLC.
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Patrick J. Lapera
Secretary
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Attorney Lapera is a founding partner of McKinnis & Lapera,LLC. and head of its corporate and
financial law practice. He was trained at the New York City firm of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. He has more than 20 years experience in sophisticated corporate, finance and commercial
transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, debt and equity financing,
reorganizations, real estate and construction, contracts and license agreements, joint ventures,
partnerships and limited liability companies, securities offerings, corporate and public finance,
and start up entity formation and financing.
With an MBA from the University of Chicago as well as a law degree from Syracuse University
College of Law (cum laude), Mr. Lapera has been a business advisor as well as a lawyer, served as
inhouse General Counsel and chief Legal Officer of a substantial corporation, and has been engaged
in his own private legal practice since 1993. He is admitted to the bar of New York as well
as Connecticut.
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Dr. Samuel Peralta
Director
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Dr. Samuel Peralta, has over 20 years of operational, business and development experience in the high technology and energy sectors. Dr. Peralta is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Envergence Inc. and the Director of Business Development for Kinectrics Inc. Prior to this, he was President and CEO of Qvadis Corp., a software solutions provider for handheld computers and acted as chief technology officer for OH Solar, built on Ontario Hydro’s acquisition of Texas Instruments Solar. Dr. Peralta also served in several other key positions at Ontario Hydro and at the Ontario Laser and Lightwave Research Centre (now the Photonics Research Ontario). His Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wales, UK, is complemented by business studies at the Rotman School of Management and the Schulich School of Business in Canada and the Edinburgh Business School in the UK. As an outside director, Dr. Peralta will devote his time to the business and affairs of OPEL International as required, which is expected to be less than 5% of his time.
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