TRUMPF Adds Managing Director; OIF Elects Board and Officers: People in the News: 11/8/23

TRUMPF (TRUMPF Photonics Components) named Thomas Harrer managing director, taking over for Berthold Schmidt, who held the position on an interim basis. Harrer started his career at TRUMPF in 1999 as an adviser and has held multiple roles within the organization. He is currently responsible for TRUMPF’s optical systems business field and laser application center.

Thomas Harrer. Courtesy of TRUMPF.

FREMONT, Calif. — The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) unveiled its 2023-2024 elected group of directors and officers. Jeff Hutchins of Ranovus, Mike Li of Intel, and Jeffrey Maki of Juniper Networks were re-elected, while Nathan Tracy of TE Connectivity was elected president. Dave Brown of Nokia and Lyndon Ong of Ciena will continue to serve as officers. Karl Bois of Nvidia was elected technical committee chair. Tom Issenhuth of Huawei was named market awareness and education committee co-chair. Klaus-Holger Otto of Nokia was elected technical committee vice chair.

Carol de Vries and Peter van Arkel. Courtesy of PhotonDelta.

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands —PhotonDelta CTO Carol de Vries will change roles, becoming chief of strategy and startup development. Peter van Arkel, PhotonDelta’s roadmap director for the integrated photonics systems-international, will be elevated to CTO. The role change will be effective Feb. 1, 2024.

Marco Arrigoni. Courtesy of Light Conversion.

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Light Conversion, a manufacturer of femtosecond laser products, appointed Marco Arrigoni as vice president of marketing. Arrigoni began his career in the defense and aerospace sector and, before joining Light Conversion, spent 35 years with Coherent in positions ranging from engineering to sales.

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. — Kopin Corp. added David Nieuwsma to its board of directors. Nieuwsma, a former U.S. Air Force officer, had a 32-year career with Collins Aerospace, holding the positions of executive vice president of information management solutions, president of interior solutions, and president of avionics solutions.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Sensing and perception systems developer Aeva appointed Stefan Sommer to its board of directors. He is also a member of the supervisory board at Knorr-Bremse AG, an automotive and rail safety technology company. Prior to this role, Sommer was CEO of ZF AG and a member of Volkswagen’s board of management.