LOUISVILLE, Colo., Jan. 26, 2006 - Picolight, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of optical transceivers and components, today announced that Doug Smidl has joined the company as vice president, sales and customer service. Smidl reports directly to Steve Hane, Picolight’s president and chief executive officer and is responsible for developing worldwide sales expansion initiatives and extending customer relationships across the company’s transceiver and components product lines.
“Doug has a proven track record of meeting and exceeding sales revenue goals, with deep experience in the telecommunications industry,” said Hane. “His global sales expertise is an important asset to Picolight as we continue to strengthen and expand our customer base while extending our market leadership in vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology and data communications applications for the enterprise, storage area and metro area networks. Doug’s sales, customer focus and leadership will be especially important as we ramp volume production of our landmark 1310-nanometer (nm) long-wavelength VCSEL transceivers and other 850nm short-wavelength product lines.”
Smidl joins Picolight during an expansion period as the company pursues several major growth initiatives. The company closed a $27.5 million funding round in August to fund several key activities including scaling manufacturing and other operations to meet growing customer demand, and extending its 1310nm VCSEL product line. In December 2005, the company announced that it was the first to ship 1310nm VCSEL transceivers in a 4 gigabit per second (Gbps) triple-rate (1, 2 and 4Gbps) Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP) configuration that meets the needs of one of the fastest growing segments of the data center market.
“I am excited to be joining Picolight during such a dynamic period in the company's growth,” said Smidl. “The company is poised to capture significant new customer opportunities thanks to its powerful combination of superior products, market leadership, strong financial backing, and accelerating market demand.”
Smidl has more than two decades of experience in the telecommunications industry, including senior positions in sales and marketing. Prior to Picolight, he was vice president of worldwide sales at VPI Systems, a management software company. Before VPI, Smidl worked at LightPointe as vice president of worldwide sales. At LightPointe, Doug successfully built a sales and support organization that significantly grew sales, and was responsible for building key channel partnerships with companies including Cisco, Huawei, Corning and Siemens. Prior to that, Smidl served as vice president of sales for ADC Telecommunications’ Broadband Access and Optical Transport Groups, driving sales revenue to a record $800 million while establishing relationships with leading service providers.
Smidl has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Iowa State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Minnesota.
About Picolight Inc.
Picolight Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Colo., is an innovative designer and manufacturer of optical components and vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)-based optical transceivers for high-bandwidth optical systems in rapidly growing data center, enterprise, storage area, and metro networking markets. The company’s mission is to leverage its breakthrough VCSEL technology, vertically integrated manufacturing strategy, and a market-focused culture to drive next generation optical interconnects for datacom applications. The company is dedicated to targeted product innovations in key growth markets that will fuel business expansion and profitability. Picolight is a rapidly growing, venture-funded company in a fast-paced optical transceiver and components market.
For more information, see www.picolight.com or email sales@picolight.com.
Editorial Contacts:
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Vidya Sharma Picolight Inc. 303-527-7448 vidya.sharma@picolight.com |
Kelly Poffenberger Weber Shandwick Worldwide 949-428-3868 kpoffenberger@webershandwick.com |
