Zephyr Photonics Adds Networking and Fiber Optics Experts to Lead Engineering and Component Operations


ZEPHYR COVE, NV--(Marketwire - Jan 25, 2012) - Zephyr Photonics today announced the appointments of Dan Tuck as General Manager and Vice President of Component Operations, and Dr. Daniel Zhu as Vice President of Engineering. Most recently, Tuck served as the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Engineering for Datastrip, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of mobile handheld biometric terminals. Dr. Zhu comes to Zephyr Photonics after serving as the Director of Engineering at Emcore Corp, where he was responsible for the design, development and high volume production of high-speed active optical cables and pluggable optical transceivers.

Tuck brings more than 20 years of experience leading development and project teams to deliver software and hardware intensive products. Prior to Datastrip, he served as the General Manager of Microphase Corp., Chief Technology Officer at Paragon Networks, Chief Technology Officer at IPC Information Systems/Ixnet, Director of Engineering at Ascom Nexion/Ascom Timeplex and Vice President of Engineering at Teleos Communications. Tuck started his career at AT&T Bell Labs in 1981 after graduating from the University of Texas with a bachelor's degree in engineering. He also earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University.

Dr. Zhu has been working in the field of fiber optics communications since 1988. In addition to his work at Emcore, Dr. Zhu served as the Product Engineering Manager over the Optical Platform Division at Intel Corp. Prior to Intel, he worked in engineering management and technical lead roles at Infinera, Mahi Networks and Ciena Corporation. In his native China, Dr. Zhu was a manager at Guangzhou Electronics Research Center. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physics at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.

"These two gentleman are both highly skilled and highly trained individuals who bring tremendous experience to our company," said Tom Steding, CEO of Zephyr Photonics. "Dr. Zhu's background and vast experience in the commercial photonics arena are strong additions to Zephyr Photonics' mission of delivering a new generation of high performance, ruggedized, optical communication solutions for harsh and demanding mission critical applications. Dan Tuck brings extensive expertise in technology development, operations management, strategic business planning, partner/supplier negotiations, and relationship management in entrepreneurial technology companies similar to Zephyr Photonics. With their technical and business leadership, combined with our extensive portfolio of optoelectronics intellectual property, and our existing world-class development teams in Los Altos, Calif. and Zephyr Cove, Nev., we are well positioned to accelerate product development and quickly bring additional products to market."

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.

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