Zephyr Photonics Forms Strategic Advisory Board

ZEPHYR COVE, NV--(Marketwire - Nov 9, 2011) - Zephyr Photonics, a manufacturer of photonic solutions for the aerospace, defense and intelligence industries, today announced the formation of an Advisory Board that will provide company leadership with ongoing counsel, guidance and advocacy as the company transitions from a research and development firm to a commercial enterprise. Zephyr Photonics' Advisory Board consists of a diverse group of professionals with broad technology expertise, and defense, intelligence and aerospace industry experience. Zephyr Photonics is going commercial with its patented vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology that provides high-bandwidth, harsh environment photonic solutions for diverse industrial, energy, defense and national security applications.

Represented on the board are business leaders, former chief executive officer, retired military officers, intelligence community members, telecommunications industry leaders and engineers with direct knowledge and experience with VCSEL technology.

"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. When we approached each of the board members with our plan for Zephyr Photonics, they immediately caught our vision and wanted to participate. Their continual input will be invaluable as we work to develop our products, navigate our target industries and identify and market to customers. We couldn't have formed a better team of advisors."

Brian Nugent, partner at Torch Hill Partners and Chairman of Zephyr Photonics, added, "As we began the process of identifying our advisory board, what was important to us was working with professionals who were willing to connect us with the right people and organizations, assist us in developing partners and customers, and help us to share our story whether to prospective investors or at industry conferences. We have been impressed with the early engagement of our board members who are already doing many of these things. We look forward to their ongoing contributions towards Zephyr Photonics success."

The company's Advisory Board includes:

• Robert Burmeister, Ph.D., president of Saratoga Technology Associates (STA), a firm specializing in R&D and global technology management. He was the founding Director of the U.S-Japan Technology Management Center at Stanford University, and prior to that held a number of positions at Hewlett Packard Laboratories including Laboratory Director. He has served on the boards of several startup companies in the optoelectronics industry.
• Daniel Burnham, retired chief executive and chairman of Raytheon Company. Burnham joined Raytheon from AlliedSignal, Inc. (Honeywell), where he had most recently served as vice chairman and a member of the board of directors.
• Nan Chen, founding president of the Metro Ethernet Forum. Chen has received more than 30 industry awards/accolades and more than 10,000 citations in worldwide media, and has been named as one of Top 100 Most Influential People in Telecom/Internet Industry.
• Lawrence J. Delaney, Ph.D., a senior executive with more than 40 years of international experience in high technology program acquisition, management and engineering. Most recently, Dr. Delaney served as vice president, special programs at L-3 Communications. He is also the former Executive VP, COO and president & CEO of Advanced Systems Development Sector Titan Corporation, chairman, president & CEO of Arete Associates, and Acting Undersecretary USAF.
• Daniel DiLeo, former executive vice president/officer of Agere Systems Optoelectronics Division. Prior to Agere Systems, 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. In 2002, at the request of the director of the National Security Agency, Jack served as a senior telecommunications advisor to the chief of IT/IS at the NSA. He has served on numerous high-level classified review committees in the intelligence community and is the recipient of the National Foreign Intelligence Community seal Medallion Award.
• Jack Jewell, Ph.D., led collaboration between BellLabs and Bellcore in 1989 that sparked international industrial VCSEL development by demonstrating more than one million VCSELs on a single chip. He founded Vixel Corp., the first company to VCSEL commercialization, and Picolight (JDSU), a leader in the commercialization of oxide VCSELs, small form-factor transceivers, parallel optical interconnects, among other transceiver technology. Dr. Jewell holds 70 U.S. patents and has published more than 150 papers.
• Paul Mockapetris, Ph.D., is an internet pioneer and advocate, and chief scientist and chairman at Nominum, Inc. In the 1980s, Dr. Mockapetris worked at Information Sciences Institute where he wrote the first implementation of the internet's mail protocol (SMTP) and then went on to create and implement the Domain Name System (DNS).
• Ed vanReuth, Ph.D., 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 U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force.
• Donald Walker is the sole proprietor of Walker Consulting, which provides technical services to the national security space and telecommunications industries. Most recently, Walker was the senior vice president of systems planning and engineering at The Aerospace Corporation. He retired from the Air Force as a Brigadier General in 1995.
• Lieutenant General Steve Whitcomb retired from the U.S. Army in November 2010 after 32 months as the 63^rd Inspector General of the Army. He also served for 38 months as the Commanding General, Third U.S. Army, supporting combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the logistical support and movement of one million troops and associated equipment. Since retirement, LTG Whitcomb has served as a Proxy Board member for Blue Hackle North America and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for Diamondback Tactical.

About Zephyr Photonics
Founded in 1987, Zephyr Photonics (formerly OptiComp) is focused on providing solutions to the Department of Defense, and the aerospace, industrial, energy, and intelligence industries. For the past 25 years, Zephyr has worked as a research and development company, creating its unique technology over 60 contracts from U.S. government agencies, communication companies, and defense prime contractors. Zephyr Photonics has independently developed its first commercial solution, a patented VCSEL technology available nowhere else in the country. The innovative technology enables the production of harsh environment, integrated optoelectronic modules for ultra-wide bandwidth data networking and optical interconnect applications. For more information, visit www.zephyrphotonics.com.