Larry Schwerin - President and CEO

Larry brings more than 25 years of firsthand experience in telecommunications, technology, and venture capital to his role as President and CEO.

Most recently, Larry was General Partner at Vanguard Ventures where he sat on the Board of Directors at Capella. Larry was President and CEO of CenCom V, a venture/corporate sponsored business accelerator focused on the telecommunications market. Prior to CenCom V, Larry was founder and General Manager of Lucent Technologies' Wireless Broadband Networks Division, responsible for developing a market leadership position for wireless broadband services around the world. Larry spent twelve years at Bell Laboratories where he was Director of AT&T's Global Fiber Access Systems.

Larry graduated with highest honors with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University, and achieved highest honors with a Master in Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

George Berberis - COO

Prior to Capella, Berberis was the Executive Operations Advisor at Avanex, where he was instrumental in the successful sale of the company’s French foundry, Avanex France, SA, to 3S Photonics in April 2007. Subsequently, he was retained by 3S Photonics as the Executive Advisor to the CEO where he advised on operational strategies and M&A activities.

Before joining Avanex, Berberis was vice president of manufacturing operations at JDSU, where he managed the global operations for the communications division with over 4,500 employees and 13 plants worldwide, including the management of high volume manufacturing of optical components and modules. Berberis played a key role in transitioning JDSU’s in-house manufacturing into a contract manufacturing model that resulted in significant cost reductions and higher margins.

He began his career as an Engineering Manager with Tandon/Western Digital. Later Berberis was at HMT Technology for 11 years where he led manufacturing and engineering activities and was recognized as the industry benchmark for high quality low cost operations.

Berberis holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University and a Masters in Business Administration from Saint Mary’s College.

Rafael Torres - CFO

Rafael brings over 15 years of experience in Finance and Accounting, Human Resources and Administration in early stage and late stage public technology companies.

From 2006 through 2008, Mr. Torres was the Chief Financial Officer for Power Integrations (POWI). While at Power Integrations, Mr. Torres lead the company through it's restatement efforts and helped scale the business to over 200M in revenues, which resulted in the company increasing its Market Capitalization from about $400M to about $1B. From 2000 to 2006, Mr. Torres served as the Chief Financial Officer for PLX Technology (PLXT), Inc. While at PLX, Mr. Torres helped lead the company through its early stages of being a public company and a series of acquisitions.

Mr. Torres earned his CPA designation while at Price Waterhouse LLP and is a graduate of Santa Clara University.

Byron Trop- Executive Vice President of Sales

Byron brings over 25 years of sales management experience in technology companies.

Prior to joining Capella, Mr. Trop was the VP of Sales and Marketing of Santur and played a key role in the explosive growth of that very successful tunable laser company that resulted in Santur earning #12 on the Inc 500 fastest growing private companies in the US. Before joining Santur, he was the VP of Sales at Bookham Technology (now Oclaro) where he built a global sales force that grew revenues 10X in 4years.

Mr. Trop graduated from the US Naval Academy and has an MBA from the University of Colorado, Denver and served in the US Navy on board Nuclear Submarines.

William J. O'Hollaren - Vice President of Product Development and Operations

Bill O'Hollaren has 25 years of experience in product development, operations, manufacturing, and plant management within the optical and advanced disk drive industries. Bill has extensive experience in leading advanced technology product development groups with responsibilities for commercializing products and achieving high volume production.

Most recently, Bill was Director of Research Program Management for Seagate Technology's Research Division in San Jose, California. Earlier positions included Program Director at Quinta Corporation, Vice President of Manufacturing at Avatar Systems Corporation, and Director of Operations at Iota Memories (subsidiary of Syquest Technology). He holds one US patent.

Bill received his BS Degree in Industrial Technology from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, California.

Kenneth J. Falta - Vice President of Business Development & Product Line Management

Ken Falta joined Capella in October 2004 as Vice President of Sales where he directs the development and implementation of global marketing and sales operations. Ken has 15 years of experience in leadership roles at the forefront of the optoelectronics and telecommunications industry with responsibilities encompassing business development, marketing and management.

Most recently, Ken was responsible for worldwide OEM sales at Glimmerglass, Inc. and OMM, Inc. At Lucent Technologies Optoelectronics Division and General Instrument (now Motorola), Ken developed and managed product strategy for telecommunications, CATV and datacom markets.

Ken received a BSEE from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Joe Dillon - Vice President of Operations & Supply Chain

Joe Dillon has over 30 years of operational, manufacturing, and financial experience with an extensive background in global contract manufacturing sites. Most recently, Mr. Dillon was Vice President of Planning at SilTerra, the leading semiconductor wafer foundry in Malaysia. At SilTerra, Dillon was instrumental in growing the company from inception to revenues exceeding $200 million. Prior to SilTerra, Joe served as Director of Worldwide Manufacturing Finance at LSI Logic, Inc. He has also spent 10 years on the finance side with NEC Electronics.

Joe holds a B.S. Degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California.

Long Yang, PhD - Vice President of Engineering

Dr. Long Yang joined Capella as Vice President of Engineering in September 2007 from MicroDisplay Corporation, where he was the Vice President of Engineering.

While at MicrioDisplay, Dr. Yang managed 6 diverse technical groups, each specialized in completely different disciplines to develop the company’s first generation LCOS-based rear projection TV from concept to production in 14 months. Prior to that, he was the Vice President of Engineering at DiCon FiberOptics and Vice President of R&D of Amplifier Component Group of JDS Uniphase. During these positions, Yang led the engineering teams to develop a broad range of state-of-the-art fiberoptics components and modules. Previously at Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Dr. Yang led a diverse team in developing pioneering technologies in LCOS technology for micro-displays and was a key contributor to the commercialization of the vertical surface emitting lasers and micro-optics components. At Bell Laboratories, Dr. Yang worked on the strained quantum-well lasers and photonic Integrated Circuit using Chemical Beam Epitaxy. Dr. Yang's technical experience covers a wide spectrum, covering material science, semiconductor processing, device physics, high-speed circuit/testing, packaging, consumer electronics, optoelectronics module, and product reliability.

Dr. Yang holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Solid State Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has been granted more than 25 patents.