OTTAWA, Canada—Tuesday, May 8, 2001 // BTI Photonic Systems, a supplier of innovative modules and advanced components for the dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) market, today announced three key appointments to its management team.
Joining BTI are Lance Laking as president and CEO, Chris Egner as vice president of business development and sales, and David Teed as vice president of product marketing.
“We're thrilled to have these three people join BTI's management team. They each have extensive experience and stature within the photonics industry,” said Vincent So, co-founder and CTO, BTI Photonic Systems. “This new management team will move BTI out of stealth-mode as we introduce our next-generation photonics components and move into the market.”
With the appointment of Lance Laking, BTI is gaining the insight and endorsement of a proven entrepreneur. Laking founded the Canadian subsidiary of the Swiss-based wireless and optical component manufacturer, HUBER+SUHNER. As managing director, he was responsible for building the Canadian subsidiary from its inception into one of HUBER+SUHNER's highest growth regions in the world. Laking has over 15 years experience in building and managing component sales companies. He holds a business degree from the University of Waterloo and is a chartered accountant.
Chris Egner joins BTI from Nortel Networks. At Nortel, Egner was the director of North American sales for emerging service providers. He oversaw the sales force handling Nortel's portfolio of converged Internet telephony and voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) products and services. Egner brings over 15 years experience to BTI in setting up and managing component sales channels and direct sales teams involved in radio-frequency/microwave, optical, and digital/analog semiconductor sales.
David Teed was co-founder and product strategy leader of Bridgewater Systems. Teed has more than 20 years of experience in strategic marketing and product positioning over a wide range of advanced optical technologies, including work with Nortel Networks.
BTI recently announced the receipt of CDN $9.5 million in financing from top venture capital firms. The company also announced a shift in focus from being a market leader in fiberoptic network test equipment to providing innovative modules and advanced components for the exploding DWDM market in both the long-haul and metropolitan area network (MAN). DWDM is a technology that enables telecommunications carriers to increase bandwidth on existing fiber networks without laying more fiber.
BTI produces erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) and fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs). An EDFA is an optical amplifier that amplifies a light signal for propagation across long-distance fiber networks. EDFAs allow light signals to propagate as light rather than having to be converted to electrical signals and back to light signals across an entire fiber route. FBGs filter and redirect wavelengths of light.
BTI Photonic Systems, incorporated in 1997, is a supplier of innovative modules and advanced components for the DWDM market. BTI's product offering of EDFAs, FBGs and advanced optical component technologies provide telecommunications companies with competitive, fiber-optic products for broadband systems in long-haul and MAN networks as well as next generation dynamic all-optical networks. For more information, visit www.btiphotonics.com.
