Most investors shy away from the long timelines and uncertain outcomes of hardware startups. Yet, the prospects for developing a ubiquitous commercial technology on the scale of the transistor is well within the realm of possibility in photonics. This panel discussion brings together active investors in the photonics space to discuss emerging trends, common problems, and how founders can build successful companies.

MODERATOR

Ian Tracey Founder Anchored In, Ltd. (UK)

Ian Tracy is a seasoned entrepreneur who has raised finance, won grants, gained sales, and grown management teams. By being a critical friend, Ian enables company growth by understanding where the resources, IP, and money, are to do it.


PANELISTS

Shahida Imani CEO Chromacity Ltd. (UK)

Shahida Imani was appointed as CEO of Chromacity in August 2018. A Chartered Management Accountant, Shahida has worked for number of high-tech companies such as Optos, Voxar and Odos Imaging bringing expertise in scale up and international expansion.

Richard Oberreiter Managing Executive Hamamatsu Ventures (USA)

Richard Oberreiter has successfully led new ventures and orchestrated turnaround for over 30 years s. After graduating from UCLA, he was commissioned as a naval officer and served on guided missile cruisers and frigates. After leaving the Navy he became a business attorney in California. During the dot.com boom a client recruited Richard to be COO of a financial software start-up. Since then, he has been a CEO or COO for four medical device companies and has brought multiple medical devices to market. Today, he manages the corporate venture capital group for Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., one of the world’s leaders in photonic technologies.

Sujatha Ramanujan Managing Director NextCorps Luminate (USA)

Sujatha Ramanujan is a serial entrepreneur and seasoned executive with 25 years of experience in Clinical Devices and in Consumer Electronics. Sujatha has started, built, and grown three startup businesses in cardiac surgical equipment, optical communications, and nano materials. In addition, as CTO and Product Line Manager of Mammography CAD and Pediatric Businesses within Kodak and Carestream, her team developed and launched clinical equipment and Clinical IT on every continent. Sujatha has held scientific, technical leadership, and laboratory head positions in Chrysler Corporation, GE, Kodak, Carestream, and Intrinsiq Materials. She holds 28 issued US patents.

Laura Smoliar Founding Partner Berkeley Catalyst Fund (USA)

Laura Smoliar has over 23 years of high level scientific, management and venture experience. She has served as an industrial scientist, a technical program manager, a startup CEO with P/L responsibility, and a founder of a venture capital firm. Laura has an A.B. Summa Cum Laude from Columbia College, Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, both in Chemistry.