Photonic Products Group Inc. (PPG) of Northvale, N.J., announced that defense industry veteran Dennis G. Romano has been appointed to its board and will serve until the annual election in June 2010. Romano had a lengthy career in the defense sector with Grumman Corp. and its successor, Northrop Grumman Corp., beginning as an avionics technician in 1964 and later serving as a systems engineer, with involvement in design and analysis for the EF-111 and F-14 aircraft unit. From 1977 to 1994, he held a number of increasingly responsible positions in marketing and business development, and in 1993 he was named vice president of business development. After Grumman was acquired by Northrop in 1995, Romano held a series of senior and executive positions in marketing, business development and strategy. In 1999, he was promoted to vice president of business strategy and development for the AEW/EW business unit, a position he held until retiring in 2001. From 2002 to 2007, Romano was a senior vice president of business development in the defense business unit at Washington Group International. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from Adelphia University. PPG makes photonics products for the defense and aerospace, laser systems, and process control and metrology sectors under its Inrad, Laser Optics and MRC Optics businesses.