Board of directors

Dr. Suresh Venkatesan

Dr. Suresh Venkatesan – Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Suresh Venkatesan was most recently Senior Vice President, Technology Development at GLOBALFOUNDRIES and was responsible for the company’s Technology Research and Development. Dr. Venkatesan joined GLOBALFOUNDRIES in 2009, where he led the development and ramp of the 28nm node and was instrumental in the technology transfer and qualification of 14nm. In addition, he was responsible for the qualification and ramp up of multiple mainstream value added technology nodes.

 

Dr. Venkatesan is an industry veteran with over 22 years of experience in semiconductor technology development. Prior to joining GLOBALFOUNDRIES, he held various leadership positions with Freescale Semiconductor in Austin, Texas. Dr. Venkatesan holds over 25 US patents, and has co-authored over 50 technical papers. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and Master of Science and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.

Peter Charbonneau

Peter Charbonneau – Lead Independent Director

Mr. Charbonneau was appointed director of POET’s board in March 2018, bringing over 30 years of experience in venture capital and network infrastructure. He is currently the Chairman of POET’s Governance Committee. As a general partner at Skypoint Capital Corporation for almost 15 years, Mr. Charbonneau was jointly responsible for the placement of $100 million of capital in early-stage telecommunications and data communication companies. Prior to Skypoint, he held a number of executive and operational roles at various networking companies, including March Networks and Newbridge Networks, where he was president and chief operating officer. In 2000, representing Sir Terence Matthews, he facilitated the purchase of the communications business systems division of Mitel Corporation, which has since operated as Mitel Networks. Mr. Charbonneau was Lead Director of Mitel Networks Corporation (NASDAQ: MITL and TSX: MNW) until its recent acquisition and currently sits on the boards of Teradici Corporation, the creator of the PCoIP protocol technology and Surgical Safety Technologies, Inc., a start-up headquartered in Toronto.

 

Mr. Charbonneau holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Ottawa and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.

Theresa Lan Ende

Theresa Lan Ende – Director

Therese Lan Ende was first appointed as an advisor to the Company’s Board of Directors in June 2022 and was elected as a director at the Annual General Meeting held on October 14, 2022.

 

Ms. Lan Ende currently serves as Chief Procurement Director of Arista Networks. Before being named Chief Procurement Officer, she served for 10 years as Senior Director of Global Supply Chain Management. Prior to Arista Networks, she was the Vice President of Supply Chain Operations at JDSU Optical Division. During her tenure at Force10 Networks, she served as Director of Materials. At Cisco Systems and ROLM Telecommunications, a Siemens Company, Ms. LanEnde held various program management and planning management positions over a 20-year period.

 

In 2019, she was honored as one of the “Top 100 Women of Influence” by Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Michal Lipson

Michal Lipson - Director

Michal Lipson was first appointed as an advisor to the Company’s Board of Directors in June 2022 and was elected as a director at the Annual General Meeting held on October 14, 2022.

 

Professor Lipson currently serves as a Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Applied Physics at Columbia University. Her research focus is on Nanophotonics and includes the investigation of novel phenomena, as well as the development of novel devices and applications. Prof. Lipson pioneered critical building blocks in the field of Silicon Photonics, which today is recognized as one of the most promising directions for solving the major bottlenecks in microelectronics.

 

Professor Lipson is the inventor of more than 45 issued patents and has co-authored more than 250 scientific publications. In recognition of her work in silicon photonics, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also awarded the NAS Comstock Prize in Physics, the MacArthur Fellowship, the Blavatnik Award, the Optical Society’s R. W. Wood Prize, the IEEE Photonics Award, and has received an honorary degree from Trinity College, University of Dublin. In 2020, she was elected the 2021 Vice President of The Optical Society and will serve as OSA President in 2023.

Jean-Louis Malinge

Jean-Louis Malinge – Director

Mr. Malinge serves as partner with ARCH Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm with nearly $2 billion under management. Additionally, he also serves as a managing director for YADAIS, a leading consulting firm in the photonics and telecommunications industries, and is a board member of Aeponyx, EGIDE SA and CAILabs. Aeponyx is a Canadian venture-backed company developing micro optical switches for tunable transceivers and optical circuit switches. EGIDE SA designs, manufactures and sells hermetic packages for the protection and interconnection of several types of electronic and photonic chips and CAIlabs is a venture-backed French innovative start-up founded in 2013 which has developed a unique spatial multiplexing platform. From 2004 to 2013 Jean-Louis was President and CEO of Kotura, a Silicon Photonics pioneer which was acquired in 2013 by Mellanox Technologies. Prior to Kotura Mr. Malinge was an executive with Corning Inc for 15 years. Jean-Louis hold an Executive M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School in Boston, Massachusetts.  He also holds an engineering degree from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Rennes, France.

Glen Riley

Glen Riley – Director

Glen Riley was appointed as a director of POET’s board in December 2020, bringing extensive and pertinent experience from a broad career in the semiconductor and optoelectronics industry spanning over 32 years. His most recent full-time role was General Manager of the Filter Solutions Business Unit in Qorvo responsible for developing highly integrated RF modules used in flagship mobile phones. Prior roles included managing director of the international headquarters for TriQuint in Singapore, general manager of TriQuint’s GaAs foundry business, general manager of TriQuint’s optoelectronics business, CEO of optical component start-up Opticalis, vice-president responsible for Agere’s high-speed/long-haul optoelectronics business, and Asia sales president of Lucent Technologies’ Microelectronics Group based in Tokyo. He has successfully led many global teams developing new products and growing profits in the RF wireless, GaAs foundry, optical components, and storage semiconductor markets.

 

Mr. Riley completed The General Management Program from the Harvard Business School in 1998 and graduated as valedictorian from the School of Engineering at the University of Maine with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1985.

Chris Tsiofas

Chris Tsiofas – Director

Mr. Tsiofas earned a Bachelor’s of Commerce Degree from the University of Toronto in 1991 and has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario since 1993. He is a partner with the Toronto Chartered Accountancy firm of Myers Tsiofas Norheim LLP. Mr. Tsiofas has also been involved as an operating partner in various private enterprises over the years and is able to offer managerial and operational insight.