Biographies

Lawrie Gloster graduated from the University of Manchester in Physics and went on to complete his Doctorate in Optical Parametric Oscillators and Non-linear Optics in 1995. Following a period of active research as a post-doctorate in air-borne optical sensing with single-frequency tunable lasers, he developed an interest in new gain materials for diode-pump solid-state lasers, which resulted in a number of key publications. In 1997, Lawrie founded Laser Quantum with Steve and Alan and, in his role as Managing Director (CEO), has developed the company into a world-recognised manufacturer of laser technology with sites in the UK, two in Germany and in the USA. He was centrally involved in the acquisition of two other laser companies, Gigaoptics GmbH and Venteon Laser Technology GmbH, to establish a femtosecond laser portfolio for Laser Quantum; and with the development of Laser Quantum’s US operations. Lawrie continues to work closely with the company’s OEMs world-wide.

Steve Lane graduated from the University of Manchester with a 1st class degree in Physics in 1992 and continued his studies at Manchester to complete his Doctorate investigating novel solid-state laser sources in the visible region, based on Cu(I) ions doped into crystalline hosts. He continued this area of research as a post-doctorate at the Laser Research Group with international collaborators in the USA and Japan. In 1997, Steve joined Alan and Lawrie to form the directorial team of Laser Quantum Ltd. Combining strong technical and commercial interests, the team rapidly developed Laser Quantum into the multi-national business it is today. As Operational Director, Steve has driven product manufacturing at Laser Quantum to be technically class-leading, and commercially competitive. Steve has overseen both lean and six-sigma initiatives to achieve internationally-recognised quality standards across the product range.

Alan Cox graduated from the University of Manchester with a 1st class degree in Physics with Electronics and went on to complete his Doctorate in the Laser Phonics Group at Manchester working on 3D holographic data storage. Alan’s post-doctoral research focussed on new gain materials for diode pumped solid state lasers, before going on to establish a newly founded Laser Quantum Ltd with Steve and Lawrie. Alan became the Technical Director of Laser Quantum and grew the R&D team that has been responsible for the design of Laser Quantum’s whole CW product portfolio. This includes optical design, electronic design and CAD functions. The Ultrafast range of products, following the purchase of Gigaoptics GmbH and Venteon Laser Technology GmbH, have subsequently been mechanically redesigned in order to benefit from Laser Quantum’s 20 years of product design experience to ensure they meet the product lifetime expectations of many of Laser Quantum’s OEM partners.

Jonas Hellstrom graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden for both his M.Sc. in Engineering Physics (1998) and Doctorate in Physics (Laser Physics, non-linear optics) (2002). After graduating, Jonas started his career at Cobolt AB, a spin-out from the Royal Institute. Firstly as Project Manager, but soon after he was promoted to Chief Technology Officer; responsible for developing the single-frequency solid-state laser product portfolio of the company, helping the company to grow from a small to mature business over the years (2002-2016).

Jonas further extended his portfolio as Head of Engineering at Excillum AB, in Stockholm, where his group was responsible for turning the Research results into reliable and compliant products.

Jonas joined Laser Quantum in March 2019 and is responsible for the Development department. He intends to strengthen the efficient development team to deliver innovative products to market.

Novanta Inc (formerly the GSI Group) is a NASDAQ listed technology supplier of photonics, machine vision and precision motion sub-systems to medical and advanced industrial OEM customers worldwide. Example applications include: 3D printing, robotics, minimally invasive surgery (endoscopy, cataract surgery, robotic surgery) and Life Sciences (DNA sequencing, In Vitro Diagnostics, Microscopy). Matthijs joined the GSI Group in 2012 after an 18-year career with Philips, where he most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of the Entertainment Lighting division. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Philips Lumileds, the global LED lighting leader, which he scaled from $250M to $750M in 4 years. Furthermore, Matthijs held various general management positions in multiple Philips business units and also served as Director of Corporate Strategy in the Philips corporate headquarters. Matthijs holds a MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France), a Master’s Degree in Applied Physics from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), as well as an Advanced Engineering Degree in Applied Physics and Electronics from ESPCI in Paris, France. He is also a Board Director at Laser Quantum, a laser source supplier for DNA sequencing and other bio-medical applications.