AmeriCOM Team Members

Mike Bechtold is CEO and Founder of OptiPro Systems, a world leader in designing and manufacturing innovative CNC grinding, polishing, and metrology machines for the precision optics and advanced ceramics industries. Under Mike’s leadership OptiPro drew the attention of Eastman Kodak, who contracted OptiPro to build the first Computerized Optical Generator (COG) – a machine retrofit designed to manufacture optics. The COG vaulted OptiPro into the precision optics industry.

Mike’s work to secure research grants funding technological advancement critical to U.S. defense and security helped OptiPro earn the prestigious Tibbetts Award from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for achievements in innovation and job creation. Optical Society of America also awarded Mike the Paul F. Forman Engineering Excellence Award for producing the first affordable CNC machine designed for the optics industry. In addition, he was awarded the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster Entrepreneurship Award.

Mike is heavily involved in promoting the optics industry having served as a board member for the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster, APOMA (American Precision Optics Manufacturers Association), Rochester Technology and Manufacturers Association, and SPIE Optifab Conference Program Committee.

Rick Plympton is the CEO of Optimax Systems, Inc., a precision optics manufacturer in Ontario, NY, where he has served since 1995. Under his leadership and vision, the company has grown from a small start-up to the largest precision optics manufacturer in the United States. With 40 years of experience in the optics and photonics industry, Rick has developed expertise in optical engineering, optics manufacturing, sales strategies, innovative HR policies, business leadership, and building a culture of lifelong learning and continuous improvement.

Rick is actively involved in supporting regional workforce development and the optics industry. He currently serves in leadership positions for several organizations including Trustee, Optimax Perpetual Purpose Trust; Director, Canandaigua National Bank; Director, Optica Foundation; Treasurer, Committee for Optics and Electro-Optical Instruments (OEOSC); Executive Committee, Business Leaders United; and Member, New York State Workforce Investment Board.

Rick has been inducted into the Rochester Business Hall of Fame, and has earned the Aspen Institute Fellowship for Job Quality.

Kirk Warden is President at LaCroix Precision Optics which produces custom precision optics for the medical, defense, scientific, and industrial OEM device markets. Kirk has been with the company for over 19 years, and previously served as its Executive Vice President where he managed day-to-day operations and the sales and marketing efforts. Based in Batesville, Arkansas, LaCroix is one of the premier domestic volume and prototype manufacturers of custom precision optics.

Kirk previously served as President of APOMA (American Precision Optics Manufacturers Association), a broad constituency of precision optics manufacturers committed to promoting and advancing opportunities for the precision optics industry. In addition, he is a co-founder of the Arkansas Photonics Industry Alliance. Kirk also serves on the Batesville Regional Airport Commission and formerly served on the Lyon College Board of Trustees.

Bob Bicksler is former President and CEO of JML Optical Industries, LLC where he served for 12 years including navigating the company through its recent sale to Thorlabs. He previously served as President and CEO of TapRoot, a leading provider of software products and services for the mobile device market, prior to the sale of its business to Neusoft. With more than 30 years of operational and financial experience in manufacturing, technology, and telecommunications companies, Bob has a proven track record of growing companies and leading them to a successful exit resulting in superior returns to investor groups. 

Bob has led and developed many companies as CEO, Executive Vice President, and/or Chief Financial and Administrative Officer including AT&T Canada; Howstuffworks.com International; Global Metro Networks; MetroNet; Performance Awareness Corporation; Seer Technologies, Inc.; and Megapath Communications.

Bob currently serves as Senior Advisor for Focus Investment Banking. His experience providing strategic merger and acquisition consulting services also comes from his former role as a Principal of Catalina Consulting during which he was responsible for evaluating numerous companies on behalf of private investment firms. He is an active member and advisor to several Boards.

Jenn Cable is President of Thorlabs, a vertically integrated supplier of photonics products, from optics, fiber optics, and optomechanical components to laser and microscope systems. Thorlabs is a family‐owned company founded by her father in 1989 and headquartered in Newton, NJ. Under Jenn’s leadership as President, the company is a thriving global organization that employs over 2700 employees with operations in nine countries.

Since joining Thorlabs in 2015, Jenn held a variety of positions that leveraged her previous experience leading a corporate strategy team that developed and executed strategic plans for Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, a major company in the healthcare industry. Prior to that, she earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Vassar College and a master’s degree in bioethics from Columbia University, and worked for Population Services International in Laos as a Princeton-in-Asia Fellow.

Len Chaloux was the Founding President and CEO of Moore Nanotechnology Systems, LLC from its inception in October 1997 until his retirement in 2018. Nanotech is a global leader in the development, design, and manufacture of advanced machine tools and processes for the production of complex optical components used in today’s state-of-the-art consumer electronics, defense, aerospace, medical, lighting, and automotive sectors. With annual revenues exceeding $40M, and nearly 100 employees, the company has remained one of New Hampshire’s top 100 private companies since 2010, and was also named NH Company of the Year in 2008.

Len has travelled extensively throughout the USA and 26 other industrialized nations working with hundreds of leading companies in the field of precision optics fabrication. He is a charter member of the American Society for Precision Engineering (ASPE), founded in 1986, and served two 3-year terms on its Board of Directors, most recently as President of the society in 2017. Len has authored numerous technical papers and given presentations in the fields of ultra-precision machine design, single point diamond turning, and deterministic micro-grinding and holds two US patents for related developments in this field.

Jessica DeGroote Nelson is Senior Director of Optical Product Development at Edmund Optics (EO) where she oversees the Strategic Optics Business Line. With more than 15 years of optical manufacturing industry experience, Jessica leads her team to help coordinate new product and manufacturing capability introduction into EO’s precision optics portfolio. She previously served as Director of Technology and Strategy at Optimax Systems, Inc., overseeing research and development and corporate strategic planning.

Jessica serves on the board of directors for SPIE (International Society of Optics and Photonics), and is senior editor of the society’s professional journal, Optical Engineering. In addition, she serves on the society’s audit committee and has chaired its annual conference, OptiFab.

Jessica works closely with future leaders in the optics manufacturing industry. She is an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, Saunders School of Business, where she teaches Innovation and Technology Management Strategy; and at University of Rochester, Institute of Optics, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on optical materials, fabrication, and testing.

Birgit Gillman is retired from her 25-year career at Zygo Corporation, a division of Ametek, where she most recently held the position of Director of Optics Manufacturing. Birgit led the day-to-day operations of all aspects of high precision optics manufacturing for aerospace, military, semiconductor, research, and commercial applications. In addition, she was responsible for meeting revenue targets, ensuring product quality, on-time delivery, and driving customer satisfaction. As a lean-certified leader, she was also heavily involved in lean manufacturing and continuous improvement.

Birgit started her career in optics while a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the late 1980’s. She began interning at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics and joined the lab full time after graduation. She subsequently transitioned to work at the Center for Optics Manufacturing for nearly a decade.

Dr. Kathleen Richardson is UCF Trustee Chair, Pegasus Professor of Optics and Materials Science and Engineering, and Florida Photonics Center of Excellence (FPCE) Professor at CREOL/College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central FL, where she runs the Glass Processing and Characterization Laboratory (GPCL). Kathleen and her research team carry out design, synthesis and characterization of novel glass and glass ceramic materials for optical applications. Her group has extensive industrial and government supported research developing novel materials for broadband infrared (IR) optical systems, gradient refractive index (GRIN) optics, precision molded optics, optical phase change materials, evaluation of complex multi-material interactions in next-generation integrated opto-electronic chip design, and in optical nano-composites for advanced chem-bio and detection applications.

In addition, Kathleen has authored more than 275 peer-reviewed publications, numerous proceedings, and book chapters, has a broad portfolio of IP related to these advances, and has organized and chaired multiple domestic and international meetings within her discipline. She is a fellow of multiple optics and materials-related societies, and an award-winning, internationally recognized leader in infrared glass research and education.