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Date Announced: 20 Oct 2010
Liquid Lens Leader Gets Veteran Industry CEO: Hamid Farzaneh to Direct Varioptic and Grow the Company into Consumer, Industrial and Professional Mass Markets.
PALO ALTO, California & LYON, France, 18th October 2010 – Liquid Lens leader Varioptic announced today the appointment of Hamid Farzaneh as Chief Executive Officer of Varioptic. This assignment is a key step in the company's plans to commercialize its broadly applicable liquid lens technology. Farzaneh brings exceptional expertise in leading global high-growth technology start-ups as well as extensive high volume business experience to Varioptic.
Hamid joins Varioptic at a time when the company is looking to accelerate market penetration, partnering with leading smart phone, industrial automation and security companies, and establish its liquid lens technology as the leading solution for miniaturized still and video cameras. The company debuted its first Auto-Focus liquid lens products, “Arctic 314” and “Arctic 416” in 2008 and recently demonstrated its combined high performance Auto-Focus and Optical Image Stabilization technology at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
"Hamid has an ideal blend of industry expertise and leadership savvy and brings an impressive track record of growing companies, boosting performance and driving corporate excellence," said Dirk Kanngiesser, Varioptic’s Chairman of the Board and Founder and Managing Partner of PolyTechnos Venture Partners. "He is the strategic addition that the company needs to build a strong global team and enhance the company's market position internationally."
"Hamid's job will be to realize Varioptic's potential in the fast growing markets of industrial and consumer imaging--and I am confident that he brings the crucial skills and the operating experience necessary to get that job done," said Curt Gunsenheimer, Board Director and General Partner at Iris Capital.
Prior to joining Varioptic, Farzaneh served as President & CEO for DisplayLink, a Palo Alto, CA, and Cambridge, UK, company leading the transformation of this technology-driven start-up into a dominant semiconductor and software company that enables easy, virtual graphics connectivity between computers and multiple displays over standard interfaces like USB, Wireless USB, and Ethernet. Before DisplayLink, Hamid was Executive Vice President of Sales and Business Development for San Jose, Calif.-based Silicon Optix Inc. Prior to that, he was COO and co-founder of Motion Sense, a MEMS controller startup in the Bay Area, and also served as executive vice president and COO of Genesis Microchip, where his leadership helped transform the company from an engineering-driven, high-cost, niche-market enterprise into a dominant chip supplier for the desktop and home digital display markets, resulting in a successful IPO.
"The high volume and high performance digital camera business is a great place to be in right now. Varioptic's liquid lens technology has the potential to dramatically expand still and video capture versatility, capability and usage models. I'm looking forward to the challenge of establishing the company's groundbreaking technology as a dominant technology in this market as well as in the industrial automation, security and medical application markets. I am truly honored to join an exceptionally innovative, creative and talented team," Hamid Farzaneh said.
Earlier in his career, Farzaneh was the vice president of marketing and sales at ASAT, and also held marketing and business development positions with National Semiconductor Corp. He earned his Masters of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France, and his MBA from Golden State University in San Francisco.
Hamid Farzaneh will be based in Silicon Valley, California and will globally lead Varioptic’s talented team located in Lyon, France, and in other sites worldwide.
Source: Varioptic
E-mail: press@varioptic.com
Web Site: www.varioptic.com
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