POET appoints Jean-Louis Malinge to board

POET Technologies Inc of San Jose, CA, USA — a designer and manufacturer of optoelectronic devices, including light sources, passive wave guides, and photonic integrated circuits (PIC) for the datacom and telecom markets — has appointed Jean-Louis Malinge to its board of directors.

Concurrently, Ajit Manocha, who served on the board since July 2014, has resigned from the board to devote his time to his new position as president & CEO of SEMI (industry association Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International), while remaining engaged with POET as a strategic advisor. Given Manocha’s new role, POET will leverage SEMI’s outreach in the electronics industry, which also includes photonics.

Malinge is currently a partner with ARCH Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm with nearly $2bn under management. He also serves as a managing director for YADAIS, a consulting firm in the photonics and telecoms industries, and is a board member of EGIDE SA, which designs and manufactures hermetic packages for the protection and interconnection of several types of electronic and photonic chips.

Previously, Malinge was CEO of silicon photonics firm Kotura (which designed and manufactured CMOS optical components) until he sold the firm in 2013 for $82m to Mellanox. Prior to Kotura, he worked for more than 15 years at Corning Inc, where he held various executive positions including VP of optical networking components.

Malinge has a Masters Degree in Physics from Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Rennes, France, along with an Executive MBA from the MIT Sloan School in Boston.

“Jean-Louis has extensive executive, technical and operational experience across the photonics and optical industry, with specific experience in transitioning companies from the R&D stage to successful commercial businesses by formulating key strategies and infusing organizations with customer-centric processes,” comments POET’s executive chairman, David Lazovsky. “He will add significant value to the board’s oversight and operational capabilities with his breadth of experience in the photonics industry,” he believes.

“I would also like to thank Ajit for his years of service to POET,” Lazovsky continues. “Ajit has been a valuable contributor to our company, and we are very pleased with his recent success as president and CEO of SEMI. We look forward to continuing to work with him as an advisor to the company,” he adds. “We are enthusiastic to simultaneously add Jean-Louis to the board who brings exceptional and relevant experience that directly complements POET’s strategic direction. We look forward to his input and contributions as we aggressively pursue the development and commercialization of our integrated photonics platform.”

Options grant

The board approved a grant of 525,000 stock options to Malinge. The options are exercisable for 10 years at a price of CAD$0.30 (US$0.24) being the closing price of the company’s shares on 1 September. The directors’ options vest quarterly in arrears over the one year of service as a director until the next annual general meeting. The options were granted subject to provisions of the firm’s stock option plan and are subject to the TSX Venture Exchange policies and applicable securities laws.