Valentin P. Gapontsev, Ph.D., founded IPG in 1990 and has been our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of our Board of Directors since our inception. Prior to that time, he served as senior scientist in laser material physics and head of the laboratory at the Soviet Academy of Science's Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Moscow. He has over thirty years of academic research experience in the fields of solid state laser materials, laser spectroscopy and non-radiative energy transfer between rare earth ions and is the author of many scientific publications and several international patents. Dr. Gapontsev holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 2006, he was awarded the Ernst & Young ® Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Industrial Products and Services in New England. He is the father of Denis Gapontsev, our Vice President-Research and Development.
Robert A. Blair
Director
ROBERT A. BLAIR served as a member of our Board of Directors since September 2000. Since January 1999, Mr. Blair has been the President of Blair Law P.C. Mr. Blair was a senior partner at the law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips from 1995 to 1999. He was the managing partner of the law firm of Anderson, Hibey, Nauheim & Blair from 1981 to 1995. He is a trustee under the Winkler Trust, previously the primary sources of equity for, and owners of, real estate ventures developed by The Mark Winkler Company. Mr. Blair is managing partner of several real estate partnerships, has been a manager/principal in cellular telephone ventures and assisted in the launch of a VoIP business. Mr. Blair holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the College of William & Mary, where he previously served on its governing Board of Visitors, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Michael C. Child has served as a member of our Board of Directors since September 2000. Since July 1982, Mr. Child has been employed by TA Associates, Inc., a private equity investment firm, where he currently serves as a Managing Director. Mr. Child holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is on the Board of Directors of Eagle Test Systems, Inc.
John H. Dalton has served as a member of our Board of Directors since September 2000. Since 2005, he has been President of the Housing Policy Council of The Financial Services Roundtable. From September 2000 to December 2004, Mr. Dalton served as our President. He was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Clinton in 1993 and served in that capacity until 1998. Mr. Dalton was nominated by President Carter to be President of the Government National Mortgage Association and to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, where he served as Chairman. He is a member of the boards of directors of Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. and eSpeed Inc. Mr. Dalton graduated with distinction from the United States Naval Academy and holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania.
Henry E. Gauthier has served as a member of our Board of Directors since April 2006. Mr. Gauthier was President of Reliant Technologies, Inc., a manufacturer of medical laser systems, from February to May 2005 and has served as Chairman of the board of directors of Reliant Technologies since May 2005. Reliant Technologies is one of our customers. He also served as a consultant to Reliant Technologies until December 2006. See "Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions." He served as Vice Chairman of the board of directors of Coherent, Inc., a manufacturer of photonic products, from October 2002 to March 2005. He served as Chairman of the board of directors of Coherent, Inc. from February 1997 to October 2002 and was its President from 1983 to 1996. Since July 1996, Mr. Gauthier has served as a principal at Gauthier Consulting. He has been a member of the board of directors of Alara, Inc. since 1997. Mr. Gauthier attended the United States Coast Guard Academy, San Jose State University, and the Executive Institute of the Stanford University Graduate Business School.
William S. Hurley has served as a member of our Board of Directors since April 2006. Since April 2006, he has been principal of W.S. Hurley Financial Consulting LLC, which provides supplemental chief financial officer services. From 2002 to April 2006, he was a partner with Tatum LLC, a nationwide executive services and consulting firm. He was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Applied Science & Technology, a developer, manufacturer and supporter of semiconductor capital equipment, from 1999 until 2001. He served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Cybex International, Inc., a designer, manufacturer and distributor of fitness equipment, from 1996 to 1999. From 1992 to 1995, he was Vice President-Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at BBN Corporation, formerly known as Bolt, Beranek & Newman, Inc., a high technology company. Mr. Hurley holds a B.S. in Accounting from Boston College and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Hurley is a certified public accountant.
William F. Krupke, Ph.D., has served as a member of our Board of Directors since February 2001. Since 1999, Dr. Krupke has been President of a laser technology and applications consulting firm (now WFK Lasers, LLC). From 1972 to 1999, Dr. Krupke worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which provides research and development services to various U.S. government departments, serving for the last twenty of such years as Deputy Associate Director of the Laser Programs Directorate. He has over forty years of experience in the fields of solid-state lasers and innovative laser materials. Dr. Krupke holds a B.S. degree in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Acting General Manager of NTO IRE-Polus and Director
Igor Samartsev has been the acting General Manager of our Russian subsidiary, NTO IRE-Polus since 2005. He served as the Technical Director of NTO IRE-Polus from 2000 to April 2005 and, from 1993 to 2001, he was the Deputy Director of NTO IRE-Polus. Mr. Samartsev holds an M.S. in Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Eugene Shcherbakov Ph.D.
Managing Director of IPG Laser GmbH and Director
Eugene Shcherbakov, Ph.D., has served as the Managing Director of IPG Laser GmbH, our German subsidiary, since August 2000 and has been a member of our Board of Directors since September 2000. Dr. Shcherbakov served as the Technical Director of IPG Laser from 1995 to August 2000. From 1983 to 1995, Dr. Shcherbakov was a senior scientist in fiber optics and head of the optical communications laboratory at the General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science in Moscow. Dr. Shcherbakov graduated from the Moscow Physics and Technology Institute with an M.S. in Physics. In addition, Dr. Shcherbakov attended the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow, where he received a Ph.D. in Quantum Electronics from its Lebedev Physics Institute and a Dr.Sci. degree in Laser Physics from its General Physics Institute.