Lightwave Logic — Leadership & Key Personnel

Source for the seed material here is lwlg.html (extracted) plus public LinkedIn/SEC bios. Deep historical detail (prior CEOs, founder background) is being researched via background agent — additions will land in 01_company/timeline.md and updates to this file.

Executive officers

Yves LeMaitre — CEO (Nov 2024 → present)

• Joined: November 2024 (replacing Mike Lebby’s CEO succession path; verify exact succession via Phase-2E historical research)
• Prior: Coherent Corp (formerly II-VI / Finisar / Oclaro lineage); EMCORE; Chief Strategy Officer at Lumentum; long career in optical components
• 2025 total comp: ~$8.6M ($500K base, 60% bonus target, 2.44M time-based RSUs vesting over 2 years) — per Apr 14 2026 DEF 14A
• Public posture: Active on LinkedIn for material communications. On Apr 22-23 2026, within hours of Marvell announcing the Polariton acquisition, LeMaitre publicly congratulated the Polariton/Marvell teams and stated “we are looking forward to continuing our partnership and bringing plasmonics even faster to the market.” That LinkedIn post remained the on-record LWLG statement on the deal through Apr 26 (no 8-K or PR filed in the 96-hour window).
• Strategic framing (Mar 2025, on expanded Polariton partnership): “transitioning from being a material supplier to collaborating on market development through end-user engagement.”
• Strategic framing (Q4 2025 call, Mar 5 2026): Polariton “continues their steady path to bringing plasmonics to commercialization… potential to accelerate the path to 800 gigabits per second modulation.”

[Confidence: High for compensation, dates, quotes; Medium for full Coherent/Oclaro lineage detail pending verification.]

Snizhana Quan — Principal Financial Officer / CFO

• Role: PFO / CFO (signed the Apr 21 2026 8-K and 424B5 prospectus supplement)
• Recent insider activity:
  • Apr 10 2026: exercised options at $4.87 + sold 20,000 shares at avg $10.36 ($207K) into the squeeze rally
  • Mar 30 2026: sold 25,000 shares at $7.27 (after exercising options at $4.87)
  • Apr 10 2026: Form 144 filed
• Read: options-exercise-and-sell pattern — supplementing comp via low-strike exercises, not flight signal.

Robert Blum — SVP Sales & Marketing

• Background: ex-Intel Silicon Photonics (Intel SiPh 2016–COVID era). Long photonics tenure — co-author of one of the first electro-optic polymer papers (1996) [Confidence: Medium — to verify which 1996 paper exactly]. 30-year photonics veteran.
• Apr 22 2026 PIC International keynote (Brussels): “From Materials to Silicon Photonics PDKs: Scaling Foundry Platforms to 400G and Beyond” — disclosed materially sharper device numbers vs. prior public spec:
  • V_π·L tightened to 0.5–0.7 V·mm (from prior <1 V·mm)
  • EO coefficient ~200 pm/V (~10× LiNbO₃)
  • T_g 185°C (>100°C above operating)
  • Measured 85 GHz at 240 Gb/s; simulated 76/138/160 GHz across 1mm/short/shortest devices in K-POD flow
  • First disclosure of 85/85 humidity 2,000h reliability with V_π stable across 25 µm / 500 µm / 1 mm device lengths
  • “All material-level Telcordia passed; device-level qualification now underway at customer sites”
  • Confirmed multiple K-POD flows running across Tower, GlobalFoundries/AMF and SilTerra with PDK integrations into Luceda and GDSFactory
  • Present-tense: “We’re ready and working with customers now on 400G designs”

Dr. Lance Thompson — VP Engineering

• Background: ex-Coherent Corp / Lumentum lineage. Reliability and device-physics specialist.
• Apr 13-15 2026 IEEE SiPhotonics 2026 (Ottawa): “silicon photonic / EO polymer hybrid modulator performance operating at datacom and telecom wavelengths” — disclosed reference devices with LWLG encapsulation passing 2,000h damp-heat stress testing. Reinforces the 85/85 length-swept claim that Blum expanded on at PIC Intl Brussels a week later.
• Prior disclosed work: 4th-generation ALD encapsulation material with OTR 1.4 × 10⁻⁶ g/m²/day (vs. ~7 × 10⁻⁶ “gold-box” standard) — being rolled into the next BEOL PDK release.

Dr. Aref Chowdhury — CTO & Head of Strategy (Jan 12 2026 → present)

• Background: Former Nokia Vice President (led $10B revenue business group). Fellow of Optica (formerly OSA). Former Bell Labs.
• Joining context: Appointed under the Yves LeMaitre CEO regime, post the Tower PH18 / GF announcements — strategic-positioning hire signaling the company is moving beyond pure-material supply into platform/strategy execution.

[Confidence: High for the appointment date and Optica fellowship; Medium for the specific Bell Labs and “$10B Nokia BU” details pending agent verification.]

Dr. Frederick J. Goetz Sr. — Founder / Chief Scientific Officer (or emeritus role — verify)

• Role: Original chromophore inventor. The “thermal-first” synthesis approach (build heat stability first, then add EO activity) is attributed to Goetz personally.
• Result of his approach: Polymers that survive >250°C — the temperature ceiling required for CMOS back-end-of-line (BEOL) integration. Major structural moat vs. competitors that prioritized EO coefficient at the expense of T_g.

[Confidence: Medium — current role title and active status need confirmation via 10-K.]

Note on Goetz family: Sr. is the founding scientist (Perkinamine inventor); Jr. is retired former CEO/CSO (per LinkedIn agent — he is NOT current board chair as some prior baseline notes suggested); Mary Goetz was a co-founder/programmer.

Technical Advisory Board

• Dr. Sundar Ramamurthy — appointed to LWLG Technical Advisory Board (per TipRanks/X surface, late 2025/early 2026). Background: ex-Applied Materials (deep semiconductor process / equipment expertise). Strengthens the materials-meets-CMOS-process bridge that LWLG is building with Tower / GF / SilTerra.

[Confidence: Medium — appointment surfaced via syndicated X post; primary LWLG PR confirmation pending.]

Board of directors (per Apr 14 2026 DEF 14A — partial list extracted from insider Form 4 filings)

• Tom Zelibor — retired President; recent Form 4 activity Mar 20-24 2026 (135K shares sold @ $7.50 + Form 144 for 115K more)
• Siraj Nour El-Ahmadi — director; Apr 7 2026 sold 54,536 sh @ avg $7.76 (tax-driven from Mar 31 RSU vest)
• Thomas M. Connelly Jr. — director; Apr 6 2026 sold 9,000 sh @ avg $8.52 (tax-driven)
• Craig Ciesla — director; Apr 1 2026 sold 11,000 sh @ avg $6.82 (tax-driven RSU vest)
• Laila Partridge — director; Apr 1 2026 sold 11,000 sh @ avg $6.84 (tax-driven RSU vest)

Annual meeting May 21 2026: shareholders vote on 2 staggered-board director seats + ratification of Stephano Slack LLC as auditor.

[Confidence: High for the named directors and their recent Form 4s; Medium for full board roster pending DEF 14A pull. Phase-2A research agent will produce a definitive list.]

Notable departures / transitions

• Mike Lebby: CEO May 1, 2017 – Dec 10, 2024 (~7.5 years; corrects prior “2014-2018” baseline). Departure was a planned retirement; LeMaitre succeeded effective Dec 11, 2024. Lebby’s pre-LWLG CV includes OIDA President 2005-2010, Intel optical interconnect co-founder 2000, AT&T Bell Labs 1985-89. The “GigOptix CEO” claim circulated in some baselines is unverified — Avi Katz was actual GigOptix CEO. Post-LWLG: GenusTechnik Inc., Optica Council Chair 2024-2026, Visiting Professor Glyndwr University.
• Tom Zelibor: Retired President effective Dec 31, 2025 (per Dec 8, 2025 8-K); LeMaitre assumed combined CEO+President role Jan 1, 2026. Recent Form 4 dispositions Mar 2026 (135K @ $7.50). Career arc: Director → Chairman (Oct 2011) → CEO (~2012-2017) → Chairman/President roles 2017-2025.
• Frederick J. Goetz Jr.: Retired (NOT current board chair as some baselines suggested). Co-named on several patents.
• James S. Marcelli: Retired as CFO Dec 31, 2025; succeeded by Snizhana Quan.

Sources

• Apr 14 2026 DEF 14A (LWLG Annual Meeting notice and proxy)
• Apr 21 2026 8-K + 424B5 Roth ATM amendment (signed Snizhana Quan, PFO)
• Apr 22 2026 PIC International keynote (Robert Blum)
• Apr 13-15 2026 IEEE SiPhotonics 2026 program (Lance Thompson)
• LeMaitre LinkedIn post (Apr 22-23 2026, lnkd.in/gTQ9_MxW)
• Mar 5 2026 Q4 2025 earnings call transcript
• Form 4 filings on SEC EDGAR (CIK 0001325964) for Quan, El-Ahmadi, Connelly, Ciesla, Partridge, Zelibor — Mar-Apr 2026
• Original company press release for Aref Chowdhury appointment (Jan 12 2026)

Updates pending from background research agents — see 01_company/timeline.md for full historical roster.