Zephyr Photonics formed an advisory board to provide leadership as the company makes the transition from research and development firm to commercial enterprise. The company is entering the commercial sector with its patented vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology, which provides high-bandwidth, harsh-environment photonic solutions for diverse industrial, energy, defense and national security applications. “Our advisory board is truly a who's who of the technology, telecommunications, military and aerospace industries,” said Tom Steding, CEO of Zephyr Photonics. “As we depart from our traditional R&D business and move into the commercial arena, we need the perspectives of business leaders and industry influencers to help us move faster and quickly overcome hurdles that we may encounter along the way.” The company's advisory board includes: •Robert Burmeister, president of Saratoga Technology Associates (STA), a firm specializing in R&D and global technology management. He served on the boards of several startup companies in the optoelectronics industry. •Daniel Burnham, retired chief executive and chairman of Raytheon Company. •Nan Chen, founding president of the Metro Ethernet Forum. Chen has received numerous awards and citations in the media worldwide and has been named one of top 100 most influential people in the telecom/Internet industry. •Lawrence J. Delaney, a senior executive with more than 40 years of international experience in high-technology program acquisition, management and engineering. He recently served as vice president, special programs, at L-3 Communications. •Daniel DiLeo, former executive vice president/officer of Agere Systems Optoelectronics Division. Previously, he was president and COO of the Optoelectronics Division of Lucent's Microelectronics Group. Currently, DiLeo is a director on the board of RF Micro Devices. •William Jack, an independent telecommunications consultant with more than 50 years' experience. Jack served as a senior telecommunications adviser to the chief of IT/IS at the NSA. •Jack Jewell led the collaboration between BellLabs and Bellcore in 1989. The effort sparked international industrial VCSEL development by demonstrating more than 1 million VCSELs on a single chip. He founded Vixel Corp., the first company for VCSEL commercialization, and Picolight (JDSU), a leader in the commercialization of oxide VCSELs, small transceivers, parallel optical interconnects and other transceiver technology. •Paul Mockapetris is an Internet pioneer and advocate, and chief scientist and chairman at Nominum, Inc. He worked at Information Sciences Institute, where he wrote the first implementation of the Internet's mail protocol (SMTP); he then went on to create and implement the Domain Name System (DNS). •Ed Van Reuth is the chief technology officer at Strategies for Advanced Technologies LLC. He has worked extensively with the intelligence community as well as in R&D and technology implementation with DARPA, the US Navy and the US Air Force. •Donald Walker is the sole proprietor of Walker Consulting, which provides technical services to the national security space and telecommunications industries. He was the senior vice president of systems planning and engineering at The Aerospace Corporation. •Lt. Gen. Steve Whitcomb retired from the US Army in November 2010 after 32 months as the 63rd Inspector General of the Army. He served for 38 months as the Commanding General, Third US Army, supporting combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the logistical support and movement of 1 million troops and associated equipment. For more information, visit: www.zephyrphotonics.com