Our People

Mr. James Walker 

Executive Chair
B-Comm, FCA, GAICD

James is an experienced leader in commercialising technology in new markets, with roles as a Non-Executive Director and various executive roles of ASX-listed and UK AIM-listed companies; as well as executive roles in other high growth companies.

He is currently Executive Chair of BluGlass (ASX: BLG) and Native Mineral Resources (ASX: NMR) as well as Non-executive Director of Digital Wine Ventures (ASX: DW8).

James has over 25 years’ experience as a Chartered Accountant and company secretary of various high growth private companies. James successfully completed the ASX-IPO of thedocyard (ASX: TDY) and DroneShield (ASX:DRO) and before that was the CFO of Seeing Machines Ltd (AIM: SEE), an AIM-listed company that utilises advanced algorithms for detection of driver fatigue and distraction.

James thrives on commercialising technology and building new global markets, with extensive experience across a wide range of international high growth businesses, including data-driven customer experience, sensor systems, mining technology services, automotive, aviation, biotechnology, hotel telemarketing, drone detection and security sectors. Through his roles Mr. Walker has completed M&A transactions, IPO listings, follow-on share placements and other capital raisings for private companies as well as ASX and UK
AIM listed companies.

Mr. Vivek Rao ​ 

Non-Executive Director
MS-EE, BSc-Elec

Vivek Rao is a semiconductor capital equipment specialist with more than 21 years’ experience in the global industry. 
 
Vivek has held a number of technology leadership and mangerial roles in the industry in the UK and Silicon Valley and is presently the Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of SPT Micro-technologies. He is also the Managing Director of international subsidiaries in Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia for SPT Micro-technologies a division of Sumitomo Precision Products.
 
Prior to his current role, Vivek was the Vice President and General Manager of Thermal Products Division of SPTS Technologies and formerly the Vice President of Product Management – products included batch furnaces, APCVD and single wafer Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system for Aviza Technology.
 
Vivek has published two technical papers and been awarded a patent in the area of device fabrication.

Mr. Stephe Wilks

Non-Executive Director
BSc, LL.M

Stephe Wilks is a professional company Director, with a long record leading successful global technology companies in high growth and disruptive industries. He has headed several Australian and international technology companies, including as Regional Director (Asia and Japan) Regulatory Affairs for BT Asia Pacific, Managing Director of XYZed Pty Ltd (an Optus company), Chief Operating Officer of both Nextgen Networks and Personal Broadband Australia, and as Consulting Director of NM Rothschild and Sons.

Stephe was the Chair of Australia’s largest private IT services company, Interactive, where he remains a non-executive director.

Stephe’s extensive technology leadership, strategic finance, M&A and governance expertise are an important contribution to the development and implementation of the BluGlass commercialisation strategy.

Mr Wilks has Science and Law degrees from Macquarie University and a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney.

Mr. Jean-Michel Pelaprat

Non Executive Director
BSPhy

Jean-Michel brings deep photonics industry expertise, with over 30 years’ experience establishing, commercialising and scaling laser and semiconductor laser businesses. As co-founder and Director of NUBURU – a US-based company recognised as a pioneer in blue GaN lasers for industrial, 3D printing and display – he helped steer the business over the past six years from start-up to a recognised industry leader.​

Before founding NUBURU, Jean-Michel held numerous leadership positions in high-growth photonics businesses, including President and CEO of Vytran, a fiber optics capital equipment company supplying optical communications, fiber lasers, medical devices, sensing and aerospace applications. He led the business to growth and profitability during the 2009-2010 recession and served on the Board of Vytran’s sister company, NKT Photonics.

Other senior roles include Chair and CEO of Novalux, Inc. a start-up developing red-green-blue (RGB) semiconductor laser sources for the projection display industry, and Director of Nuvonyx, a pioneer in infrared high-powered semiconductor lasers for industrial and defence.

Prior to Novalux, Jean-Michel spent 13 years at Coherent, Inc. There, his positions included Vice President and General Manager for both Diode-Pumped Solid-State (DPSS) and Laser business and Semiconductor Laser groups—with a focus on aggressive organic growth combined with several M&As. He pioneered the DPSS and the Optically Pumped Semiconductor Laser (OPSL) mass-market adoption. He was also the Vice President of Strategic Marketing for the company.

Jean-Michel holds a degree in Physics from the University of Montpellier, France (USTL) and has undertaken Sales Management and Finance education at the Wharton School of Business and studied Strategic Marketing for the High-Tech Industry at Stanford University. He previously served as the Chair of the Corporate Associates committee for several years and a Director of the Optical Society of America.

Jim Haden

President
MsEE, BEE

James (Jim) Haden is an expert laser diode executive with three decades’ laser industry expertise and a demonstrated track record transforming advanced technology businesses from R&D and early-stage product development to profitable, high growth commercial entities. He has held senior executive and advisory roles at several of BluGlass’ prospective customers and competitors, including Senior Technical and Operations Adviser at Kyocera SLD, Chief Operating Officer at nLight, Director of Operations and Product Line Management at Coherent, and Director of Operations at JDS Uniphase.

Jim’s unique synergy of deep technical, commercialisation and leadership skills along with his extensive customer and supply chain network will be invaluable in helping BluGlass solve our reliability challenges as we transition the Company to profitability and deliver a pipeline of next-generation laser products to market.

In his most recent role at Soora Laser Diode (now Kyocera-SLD), Jim was responsible for guiding operations and development teams to stabilise, improve, and ramp high-power blue GaN lasers. This product development delivered a leading automotive customer (BMW) and rapid revenue growth, assisting in their acquisition by Kyocera in January 2021.

Prior to this, Jim was the Chief Operating Officer at nLIGHT, helping transform the business from early-stage revenue generation to its current market leadership position. During his time with nLIGHT, he more than doubled revenue, delivered a four-fold increase in R&D return on investment, streamlined production management, and improved manufacturing yields and cost margins; ultimately assisting the business to attract expansion capital of US$25M.

Other senior roles include Director of Operations and Product Line Management at Coherent Incorporation, Director of Operations South Bay Operations at JDS Uniphase, and Director of Operations at Spectra Diode Lasers (acquired by JDS Uniphase for US$41B).

As President, Jim oversees all aspects of the business and will be responsible for transitioning BluGlass from its R&D origins to a technology development and product manufacturing company.

Dr. Ian Mann

Chief Technology & Operations Officer
​PhD, MBA,  MSc, BSc-Eng, FAICD

Expertise and Experience:​

• Prototype and product development
• Commercialisation of intellectual property
• Technology and scientific team management

Ian brings a wealth of knowledge to the BluGlass technology and commercial teams with his experience in managing and developing technology companies and commercialisation plans to bring high technology projects to commercial outcomes.

Prior to joining BluGlass he was the CEO of Bandwidth Foundry International Pty Ltd working on innovations in chip based optoelectronics including laser projectors while leading a commercial microfabrication foundry service for innovative Australian companies and research institutions. Ian has worked in a number of cutting-edge technology companies in the US and Australia where he has managed technology teams, developed and executed transition strategies, business plans and facilitated mergers and acquisitions along with establishing spin off companies to commercialise intellectual property.
​
Ian received his PhD in Polymer Science from Akron University in the US working on flat panel displays and has an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

During his time at BluGlass he has led the technology team to complete a number of the company’s critical technical milestones including the achievement of its proof-of-concept milestone in November 2012.

Brad Siskavich

Executive Vice President
​20+ years experience in semiconductor industry leadership

Experience and Expertise:

• ​20+ years experience in semiconductor industry leadership
• Extensive experience transferring technology from prototype to commercial production

​
Brad Siskavich has more than 20 years’ experience in developing, marketing and commercialising new technologies in start-up and high-growth environments in the compound semiconductor, photovoltaic (solar), laser, photonics and opto-electronics industries.

He has previously worked in senior research and business development roles at companies that include Emcore, Oxford Instruments and Masimo Semiconductor.

Brad brings significant industry expertise to BluGlass, with deep research and business development experience across the sector. His role has a global focus for both BluGlass and the EpiBlu service business. He provides us with a dedicated resource based in the US to develop export markets there for our RPCVD technology.

Stef Winwood

Head of Corporate Communications and
Investor Relations

Experience and Expertise:

• ​Technical communications and marketing specialist
• Broad business analysis and market research experience
• Extensive brand management experience

​
Stef Winwood is an experienced, creative and strategic marketing and communications professional with more than 15 years’ experience building brands and businesses.

Over the past decade Stef has specialised in technical communications for both Fortune 500 companies to technology start-ups, translating complex technical information for non-technical audiences.

Stef’s specialisations include: Investor relations and communications management for ASX listed companies and related compliance; branding and identity creation and management; media and stakeholder relations; coaching and training.

Izzat Shadid

Financial Controller
​BBus (Accounting), CPA

Experience & Expertise

• Financial management and reporting
• Governance and regulatory compliance
• Development and delivery of growth strategy

Izzat is a finance professional with over 15 years of experience in managerial accounting and finance roles. Izzat commenced his career in Public Accountancy and rose to the position of senior associate within a chartered accounting practice, before joining BluGlass in 2010.

Izzat has acted as Financial Controller since 2017, where he is responsible for the overall financial operations at BluGlass, as well as human resources and IT. Within finance, Izzat guides the treasury, shareholder reporting, accounting, tax, and manages the external audit functions. Izzat leads and manages reporting, governance, and financial analysis to pursue the company’s growth strategy.

Izzat brings a strong technical accounting base, along with a passion for process improvements, to drive the business forward.

Dr. Marie Wintrebert-Fouquet

Chief Scientist
PhD (Physics)

Marie Wintrebert-Fouquet is one of the founding scientists of BluGlass. She previously worked at Macquarie University in faculty of Sciences for 10 years. She designed and fabricated GaAs and InP based resonant tunnelling diodes and transistors. She then become closely involved in growing and characterising nitride thin films where she helped develop the RPCVD process used by BluGlass today.

Marie’s expertise in crystal growth and her advanced material characterisation techniques are integral to the work being conducted at BluGlass, where she has established all aspects of device design and fabrication, from modelling through to measurements.

Marie immigrated to Australia after graduating from the University of Montpellier II in 1995 with a PhD in semiconductor-related electrical noise measurements. She was responsible for developing various quality check protocols for ‘multi-quantum well avalanche photodiodes’ and subsequently established a theory on conduction before the onset of multiplication in multi-quantum well devices, applicable for photodiodes and lasers.

Dr. Josh Brown

Head of Epitaxy
​PhD (Physics)

Experience & Expertise

• III-Nitride crystal growth by MOCVD and RPCVD
• Optoelectronic device simulation
• GaN-based laser diode design
• RPCVD equipment and process development

Josh received his BSc in physics with First Class Honours in 2007 and PhD in 2012 from Macquarie University in the field of experimental condensed matter physics.

He began working as a Senior Process Engineer at BluGlass in 2011, contributing to III-Nitride material and device development, which helped deliver the company’s proof-of-concept milestone in 2012. During his time at BluGlass Josh has also been heavily involved in the equipment and process development of BluGlass’ core RPCVD technology. He is a primary author on a number of publications and a named inventor on several key patents.

Since 2017, Josh has led EpiBlu, the epitaxy foundry services arm of BluGlass – providing custom R&D and engineering solutions to customers around the world using both MOCVD and RPCVD platforms. Now as the Head of Epitaxy, he is the lead epitaxial scientist for the development of BluGlass’ RPCVD-enhanced laser diode products.

Dr. Arkadi Goulakov

Senior Laser Scientist
​PhD (Physics)

• Laser diode fabrication and device integration expertise
• Senior scientist with more than 17 years’ industry experience
• Held technical leadership positions in leading laser organisations across the USA

Dr Goulakov is a laser expert with more than 30 years’ experience in developing and commercialising cutting edge opto-electronics. He has more than 17 years industry experience in managing dynamic laser innovation projects and brings a wealth of laser fabrication, integration and reliability expertise. Dr Goulakov has held technical leadership positions at II-VI Optoelectronic Devices, where he led the development and production of multimode VCSEL arrays for 3D sensor applications; Western Digital where he managed laser diode integration for Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) applications; and Seagate Technologies where he was responsible for the design and processing of optical waveguides and coupling gratings, as well as future generation HAMR products. He has also held technical roles at Microsemi, AlfaLight Inc and Corning Applied Technology.

Dr Goulakov completed his PhD in Physics at the prestigious Ioffe Institute in Saint Petersburg, one of Russia’s largest research centres specialising in physics and technology. He is the Principal Inventor of four issued US patents, the author of multiple trade secrets, and a recipient of multiple Patent and Invention Disclosure Awards.

Dr. Satya Barik

Head of Materials Engineering and Intellectual Property
PhD (Electronic Materials Engineering), MTech, MSc, BSc

Expertise and Experience:

• Growth and characterisation of nitride materials, including solar cells, LEDs, tunnel junctions for cascade
  LEDs
• Design and development of RPCVD systems
• IP portfolio management

Satya is a Senior Process Engineer with more than 15 years’ experience in the growth and characterisation of nitride materials for the development of cutting-edge and novel device applications, including RPCVD grown solar cells, tunnel junctions for cascade LEDs, and long-wavelength InGaN LEDs for RGB applications.

During his time at BluGlass, Satya has contributed to the Company’s proof-of-concept milestone with the successful reduction of impurities in RPCVD nitride films and the breakthrough technology demonstration with the successful development of active-as-grown tunnel junctions for cascade LEDs and novel laser diode devices.

Satya is a key author of several BluGlass patents. He is also responsible for the in-house management of BluGlass’ Intellectual Property portfolio.

Denis Timoney

Head of Hardware and Facilities
​HNC Mechatronics

Experience & Expertise

• Semiconductor equipment engineer and technician
• Facility design, build and management
• Work, health and safety

Denis is an expert semiconductor hardware engineer with more than 20 years’ experience, managing equipment and facilities for major semiconductor manufacturing organisations around the world. He commenced his career at National Semiconductor (UK) as a maintenance technician in Photolithography. He joined ASML as a Field Service Engineer and spent 12 years working in various roles, from Lead Engineer on NPI system upgrades worldwide (Taiwan, US, Europe) to customer support services, maximising throughput and machine uptime across Europe and the UK.

Since moving to Australia, Denis was a Photolithography Equipment Engineer at Silanna Semiconductors before joining BluGlass as a Senior Hardware Engineer in 2013. He was promoted to Head of Hardware and Facilities in 2019.

During his time at BluGlass, Denis has implemented the largest facility upgrade in our history. This increased the manufacturing capacity and capability, with the development of the Paul Dunnigan Laboratories, which were delivered on time and on budget. He also played a major part in the overhaul of the Company’s WHS system and has implemented world-leading semiconductor manufacturing safety standards across BluGlass’ Sydney Australia and New Hampshire, USA facilities.