President/CEO Dr. Xin Zhang has more than 20 years of experience in Photonics. Before founding Auxora, he was Manager of R&D at Corning OCA overseeing all aspects of R&D activities in DWDM filters and devices. Before joining Corning OCA, Dr. Zhang was involved in establishing a new R&D center for Melles Griot. Between 1991 and 1995, Dr. Zhang was a postdoctoral fellow/research associate at the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. He is the author of 40 technical publications and the holder of 2 U.S. patents. Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in Physics from Boston College and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Physics from Xiamen University in China. Dr. Zhang founded Auxora in January 2000.

 

Vice President of Sales Grant Watkins has over 25 years of domestic and international management experience in the optical communications industry. Before joining Auxora, Grant was Vice President of Business Development for Confluent Photonics Corporation, creating optical subsystem opportunities in the CATV industry. Prior to this, Grant held director level positions at UNAXIS and Cisco/Pirelli Optical Systems in Sales and Product Marketing, respectively. While at Pirelli Optical Systems, Grant was intimately involved with the installation of the nation’s first coast-to-coast, OC-192, DWDM long-haul system. Prior to joining Pirelli, Grant worked as International Engineering Manager for Corning, Inc. During his 19 years with Corning, he held key technical and management positions in International Applications Engineering, Product Engineering, Product Development and International Joint Venture Development. Grant has an M.S. degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a B.S. from the University of Maine.

Vice President of Business Development Tom Geyer has over 29 years of experience selling and supporting high technology telecommunications products and services to global large-cap and small start-up companies. Prior to joining Auxora, Tom was the Eastern Region Business Development Manager selling electronic manufacturing services for Sanmina-SCI’s Optical Solutions Group.  Prior to this, Tom held several sales positions for JDS Uniphase during their acquisition/merger phase and transformation into a key supplier of fiber optic modules and components to the telecommunications industries. Tom’s fiber optics background began at Corning in the mid-1970’s after acquiring his Masters and Bachelors degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University. Tom’s industry experience further evolved over the following 20 years while holding several management positions in engineering, application development, manufacturing, product marketing and sales for ITT, SpecTran, Gailileo and Corning-OCA, where Tom won a multi-million dollar contract with MCI for the first four-channel thin film filter-based WDM product in the industry.