Ayar Leadership

Executive Team

Charlie Wuischpard

Chief Executive Officer

About Charlie

Mark Wade

President, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder

About Mark

Lisa Cummins Dulchinos

Chief Financial and Operating Officer

About Lisa

Chen Sun

Chief Scientist, VP of Silicon Engineering and Co-Founder

About Chen

Roy Meade

Vice President of Manufacturing

About Roy

Hugo Saleh

VP of Marketing and Business Development

About Hugo

Vladimir Stojanovic

Chief Architect and Co-Founder

About Vladimir

Garth Thompson

Vice President of IT and Support

About Garth

Board of Directors

Charlie Wuischpard

Chief Executive Officer

About Charlie

Mark Wade

President, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder

About Mark

Matt Hershenson

Board Member

About Matt

Advisors

Alex Wright-Gladstein

Co-Founder and Advisor

About Alex

Rajeev Ram

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

About Rajeev

Milos Popovic

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

About Milos

Daniel Armbrust

Investor and Advisory Board Member

About Daniel

Srinath Kalluri

Advisory Board Member

About Srinath

Charlie Wuischpard

Chief Executive Officer

Charlie joined the company as CEO in November 2018. He has had a long career in the industry as a growth oriented executive with both large public and smaller venture backed companies. He most recently was VP/GM in the Intel Data Center Group where he realized that integrated optical communication can enable dramatic capabilities in new system architectures.

Mark Wade

President, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder

Mark is the President and Chief Technology Officer of Ayar Labs. Prior to founding Ayar Labs, he led the group that designed the optics in the world’s first processor to communicate using light. He holds a PhD from University of Colorado.

Lisa Cummins Dulchinos

Chief Financial and Operating Officer

Lisa joined Ayar Labs as CFO and COO in January 2019 after overseeing a successful sale of Penguin Computing as CFO. Prior to that, she was CFO at Adept Technology, a publicly traded robotics company. Lisa brings over 25 years of experience as a growth oriented financial executive in global high-tech organizations. She holds an MBA from St. Mary’s College and a BA from UCSB.

Chen Sun

Chief Scientist, VP of Silicon Engineering and Co-Founder

Chen is the Chief Scientist and VP of Silicon Engineering of Ayar Labs. Prior to founding this company, he led the group that designed the electronics and optical device drivers in the world’s first processor to communicate using light. He holds a PhD from MIT.

Roy Meade

Vice President of Manufacturing

Roy has 20 years of experience in CMOS, and is an inventor on 50 patents. He led the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) development effort at Micron Technology, and he led the optics program there with MIT, CU Boulder, and UC Berkeley, where he developed the first monolithic SiPh transceiver on bulk CMOS. Prior to Micron, he managed an engineering team focused on packaging at optical transceiver startup Yafo Networks. He received his MBA from Duke and his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Hugo Saleh

VP of Marketing and Business Development

Prior to joining Ayar Labs, Hugo spent nearly 20 years in various business and technical leadership roles at Intel Corporation, most recently leading the global strategic accounts organization for its datacenter solution business and worldwide marketing for the High Performance Computing (HPC) and Workstation businesses. Hugo holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida.

Vladimir Stojanovic

Chief Architect and Co-Founder

Vladimir is the Chief Architect of Ayar Labs. Prior to founding Ayar Labs, he led the team that designed the world’s first processor to communicate using light. Vladimir is also a Professor of EECS at UC Berkeley, and was one of the key developers of the Rambus high-speed link technology. He holds a PhD from Stanford University.

Garth Thompson

Vice President of IT and Support

Garth joined Ayar Labs in December 2019 as the Vice President of IT and Support. Before Ayar Labs, he was the Chief Digital Officer at Penguin Computing where he ran the IT, support, security and internal software development teams. He has over 20 years of experience as a business and technical leader for fast-moving, technical companies. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Matt Hershenson

Board Member

Matt is a partner and co-founder of Playground Global. Prior to Playground he was Director of Hardware for Android at Google, where his work included the development of several generations phones and tablets, as well as the formation of Google’s Consumer Silicon team. Matt also co-founded Danger, Inc, where he worked from its founding in 1999 through its acquisition by Microsoft in 2008.

Alex Wright-Gladstein

Co-Founder and Advisor

Alex is a co-founder of Ayar Labs and was its founding CEO. In this role, she raised its first $27M in venture funding and recruited Charlie Wuischpard as CEO. Prior to founding Ayar Labs, she was the Energy Entrepreneurship Practice Leader at MIT.

Rajeev Ram

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

Rajeev leads the Physical Optics and Electronics (POE) Group at MIT, where he is a Professor of Electrical Engineering. Prior to founding Ayar Labs, he led the MIT lab that made the optical devices in the first processor to communicate with light. He was the Program Director for ARPA-E at the United States Department of Energy from 2010 to 2012, and the Director of Center for Integrated Photonics at MIT from 2004 to 2012. He is also a Founder and Board Member of Pharyx Inc. He holds a PhD from UC Santa Barbara.

Milos Popovic

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

Milos is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Boston University. Prior to founding Ayar Labs, he led the University of Colorado, Boulder lab that developed the optical devices in the first processor to communicate with light. He has authored or co-authored over 25 patents and 150 journal and conference papers. He holds a PhD from MIT.

Daniel Armbrust

Board of Directors Observer and Advisory Board Member

Dan was formerly Vice President of 300mm Semiconductor Operations at IBM, and brings a wealth of experience in high-volume manufacturing to Ayar Labs. He also served as CEO of SEMATECH and was the co-founder and CEO of Silicon Catalyst.

Srinath Kalluri

Advisory Board Member

Srinath led the photonics team that delivered on the promise of Intel Si Photonics with first product delivery in 2016, and then as Head of R&D for Intel Silicon Photonics, where he led overall product development for the division. Prior to joining Intel, he was the Director of Transmission Components at Lumentum, Founder and CTO of Ilumed, and VP of Product Development at VSK Photonics. He holds a PhD from USC.

Ayar Leadership

Executive Team

Charlie Wuischpard

Chief Executive Officer

Mark Wade

President, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder

Lisa Cummins Dulchinos

Chief Financial and Operating Officer

Chen Sun

Chief Scientist, VP of Silicon Engineering and Co-Founder

Roy Meade

Vice President of Manufacturing

Hugo Saleh

VP of Marketing and Business Development

Vladimir Stojanovic

Chief Architect and Co-Founder

Garth Thompson

Vice President of IT and Support

Board of Directors

Charlie Wuischpard

Chief Executive Officer

Mark Wade

President, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder

Matt Hershenson

Board Member

Advisors

Alex Wright-Gladstein

Co-Founder and Advisor

Rajeev Ram

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

Milos Popovic

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

Daniel Armbrust

Investor and Advisory Board Member

Srinath Kalluri

Advisory Board Member

Success!

Charlie Wuischpard

Chief Executive Officer

Mark Wade

President, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder

Lisa Cummins Dulchinos

Chief Financial and Operating Officer

Chen Sun

Chief Scientist, VP of Silicon Engineering and Co-Founder

Roy Meade

Vice President of Manufacturing

Hugo Saleh

VP of Marketing and Business Development

Vladimir Stojanovic

Chief Architect and Co-Founder

Garth Thompson

Vice President of IT and Support

Matt Hershenson

Board Member

Alex Wright-Gladstein

Co-Founder and Advisor

Rajeev Ram

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

Milos Popovic

Technical Principal and Co-Founder

Daniel Armbrust

Board of Directors Observer and Advisory Board Member

Srinath Kalluri

Advisory Board Member

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