 |
 |
||||||
[February 2010]
Zygo Corp Names Chris Koliopoulos President and CEO
Zygo Corporation (Middlefield, CT, USA) has announced that Chris Koliopoulos, former President and CEO of ADE Corporation, has been appointed President and CEO, effective immediately. With the commencement of his employment, Dr Koliopoulos has also become a member of the Board of Directors of Zygo Corp. He succeeds J Bruce Robinson who announced in October his planned retirement as CEO, and from the Board.
Dr Koliopoulos has a strong track record of delivering growth and increasing value at advanced optical instruments companies and a deep understanding of ZYGO's core markets gained through 20 years of executive leadership experience in the industry. He served as President and CEO of ADE Corporation, a publicly-traded metrology equipment supplier utilising interferometric and capacitance measurement technology, from 2002 until the company's acquisition by KLA-Tencor in 2006. During this period, ADE's revenue grew from $75 million to $160 million, gross margins rose from 39 percent to over 56 percent, cash from operations increased from $14.7 million to over $100 million and the company's stock price rose from a low of $2.25 per share to $32.50 per share.
Considered a leading expert in optical interferometry, Dr Koliopoulos has a keen understanding of all aspects of a technology business, having founded and led two successful optical metrology businesses, WYKO Corporation and Phase Shift Technology, and served as President of ADE Phase Shift after Phase Shift was acquired by ADE in 1998. He has also served on the faculty at the University of Arizona's Optical Sciences Center and has a BSc in optics from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester and MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Arizona.
"Chris Koliopoulos is an ideal CEO for ZYGO," stated Dr Bruce Worster, Chairman of the Board of ZYGO. "His career reflects strong leadership and success in the corporate world, entrepreneurship and academia. He is widely regarded as an industry luminary, with his extensive experience in optical systems and proven ability to manage businesses in this space and drive shareholder value. We look forward to the many contributions that he can bring to ZYGO. On behalf of the Board, I would like to reiterate our thanks to Bruce Robinson for his leadership of ZYGO over the past ten years. Bruce Robinson's drive and dedication to ZYGO have been instrumental in enabling ZYGO to retain its leadership position in optics and optical metrology during a period of rapid change in the industry. We wish him all the best in the future."
"I am excited to be joining ZYGO at this time," said Dr Koliopoulos. "I've spent much of my career competing with ZYGO; it feels great to now be working with this optics powerhouse. The Company has a strong market position, backed by its impressive advanced technologies, industry expertise and talented team of employees. With the Company's recent cost-cutting initiatives and focus on core markets and technologies, a strong foundation has been established going forward, and I plan to move quickly to serve our customers, shareholders and partners, delivering on the great potential of this business."
ENDS