Management

Micki Downey
President & CEO
Micki Downey joined NP Photonics in May 2006. Previously, Micki served as Vice President & General Manager of the Commercial Lasers Business Unit of Spectra-Physics, Inc. During the course of her 22-year career at Spectra-Physics, she has served in numerous roles including accounting, procurement, production control, materials management, quality management, marketing, and operations management. Micki holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in American Studies from California State University at Long Beach.

Arturo Chavez-Pirson, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Arturo Chavez-Pirson received the B.S. degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona. Prior to joining NP Photonics in December 2000, he was a Senior Research Scientist in the Basic Research Laboratories of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation in Japan. At NTT, he directed R&D programs covering optoelectronic phenomena and devices for telecommunications applications. He was a Research Fellow at Imperial College in London U.K., and served as advisor to the Japan Research Development Corporation in Tokyo. Dr. Chavez-Pirson has over 20 years of academic and industrial experience in photonic materials and devices. He has extensive experience and knowledge of optical fiber-based and solid-state lasers and amplifiers, optical physics in semiconductors, fiber optic microscopy and spectroscopy, and ultra-fast phenomena in materials. He is currently an Adjunct Research Professor in Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.

Terry Hannon
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Terry Hannon joined NP Photonics in January 2010. He most recently served as Executive Vice President of XSiL where he was responsible for Marketing, Sales and Corporate Strategy. Previously Terry was Vice President and General Manager of the Solid-State-Laser Business Unit at Coherent Inc. where he delivered consistent revenue and profit growth as well as strategic product development. Terry received his Honors Degree in Physics and his Masters Degree in Optoelectronics from Queen's University, Belfast. He is also a graduate of the MBA at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Lukas Gruber, Ph.D.
Director of Engineering
Dr. Lukas Gruber joined NP Photonics in September 2005, as Director of Fiber Laser Engineering. Prior to joining NP, Dr. Gruber held several Engineering positions at Coherent and Spectra-Physics. At Coherent, he worked on a new high power laser platform for cw, Q-switched and ultrafast lasers. At Spectra-Physics, he led several projects for industrial high-power Q-switched lasers. Dr. Gruber earned his MS in Physics from the Technical University of Graz, Austria and completed his PhD in Physics after his research in plasma physics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA.

Doug Pearson
Vice President, Finance
Doug Pearson holds a BS and MBA from The University of Minnesota.  Pearson has 25 years of finance experience, primarily in the specialty chemical industry.  He has experience in start-ups and large company environments.  Most recently he was the Vice President of Finance and Administration for the Vehicle Care Division of Ecolab, Inc.

Board Members

Nasser Peyghambarian, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board
Nasser Peyghambarian received his Ph.D. in solid-state Physics from Indiana University in 1982, specializing in optical properties of semiconductors. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University from 1981 to 1982 and the University of Arizona, Optical Sciences Center from 1982-1983. He is currently a Professor at both the Optical Sciences Center and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Arizona. He is also Chair of Photonics and Lasers at the University of Arizona. He serves as Director of the Center for Optoelectronic Devices, Interconnect & Packaging (COEDIP) and Director of the Photonics Initiative. He is Chairman of the Board and Founder of NP Photonics, Inc.

Carl Eibl
Managing Director, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital
Carl Eibl joined Enterprise Partners Venture Capital in mid-2003 as a Managing Director. Prior to joining Enterprise, Carl was the CEO of several high profile technology and life science companies in San Diego. As CEO of publicly-held Maxwell Technologies (MXWL), Carl led the recreation of Maxwell from an engineering and physics service organization for the U.S. military to a high-tech business that develops, manufactures and commercializes energy storage devices called ultracapacitors in the industrial, energy and transportation markets and single board computers and components in the satellite and space market. Before joining Maxwell, Carl served as President of Stratagene Corporation (STGN), now a public company but then a privately-held biotechnology company selling DNA, RNA, biologicals and laboratory instruments in the pharmaceutical and university biotech research markets. Carl also served as CEO for Mycogen Corporation a publicly-held agricultural, biotechnology company, which was sold to The Dow Chemical Company at the end of 1998. Carl holds a J.D. from the Boston University School of Law in Boston, MA, and a B.A. from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He currently serves on the Boards of BMS, Breach Security, Enviance, Identrus, Maxwell Technologies, NP Photonics, Preventsys and Stratagene Corporation. Carl also is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Burnham Institute, a life sciences research institution in La Jolla, CA.

Jeffrey M. Drazan
Managing Director, Sierra Ventures
Jeffrey M. Drazan is a General Partner of Sierra Ventures, a Menlo Park, California, venture capital fund.  Prior to joining the venture capital community, Mr. Drazan was employed by American Telephone and Telegraph, where he held various line management positions within the operating divisions of AT&T-Long Lines, AT&T Information Systems and Bell Laboratories. Mr. Drazan was among the first group of employees chosen by AT&T to start American Bell, the company's first unregulated subsidiary. He has general management operating experience in the service and manufacturing segments of the telecommunications, software and data processing industry. Mr. Drazan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA degree from New York University's Graduate School of Business Administration.

George C. Kenney
Managing Partner, Shepherd Ventures
George Kenney is co-founder and Managing Partner of Shepherd Ventures. He has a strong technical background combined with extensive Wall Street and financial industry experience. George has been a successful manager in rapid growth environments, turning around struggling operations and developing and mentoring high technology companies. Before forming Shepherd Ventures, George was CTO and Partner at Nicholas-Applegate in San Diego. He also served as CTO and Managing Director at Kidder Peabody in New York City. Previously he held top IT positions at Swiss Bank, Salomon Brothers and the American Stock Exchange. As Director of Research for North American Philips and co-founder of Digital Measurements Corp, George obtained numerous US and foreign patents. George holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University, an MSEE from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is also a graduate of Harvard University’s Industrial Management Program. George has served as a Trustee of the San Diego Museum of Art and pro-bono Chairman of the museum’s investment committee. He currently sits on the Board of Governors of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC) as well as on the boards of several technology companies.