Micro Imaging Technology Inc. of San Clemente, Calif., has promoted John Ricardi to executive vice president, a position created by its board. Ricardi, who is currently chief operating officer, will lead the commercialization program for the company’s microbe identification technology. He will also retain his COO responsibilities. Ricardi has more than 25 years of business development and operational management experience in the life sciences and semiconductor industries. He joined Micro Imaging in 2007 as vice president of business development and was shortly thereafter promoted to COO. The company’s laser-based MIT 1000 system uses light scattering and computer algorithms instead of chemical or biological agents, conventional processing, fluorescent tags, gas chromatography or DNA analysis to identify bacteria contamination for food quality control, clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical quality assurance, semiconductor processing control and water quality monitoring.