Velodyne Lidar Makes Changes to Executive Team

Velodyne Lidar appointed Sinclair Vass chief commercial officer, succeeding Mike Jellen. Vass joins Velodyne Lidar from Focuslight Technologies, a China-based manufacturer of high-performance laser and optical beam steering solutions, where he served as corporate senior vice president and was responsible for driving profitable growth as the leader of its Laser Optics Business Unit. At Velodyne Lidar, Vass will be responsible for worldwide sales and deepening the company’s customer relationships.

In conjunction with Vass’s appointment, Velodyne named Jellen chief strategy officer. He will be responsible for advancing Velodyne’s growth through mergers and acquisitions and corporate development initiatives. Jellen formerly served as president of Velodyne Acoustics in 2015 and as founding president of Velodyne Lidar from 2016 through 2019. Prior to joining Velodyne, Jellen served as vice president at Adept Technology, a leader in robotics and vision technology.

Vass and Jellen will report directly to company CEO Anand Gopalan.