New products

Alex Cable, Founder and President of Thorlabs, Inc., and Dr. Bruno Gross, a former consultant with McKinsey and Company, joined the Menlo team as of December 21, 2001. Mr. Cable will serve as a Board Member and brings extensive business-building expertise to the team. Mr. Gross will assume the role of Chief Financial Officer. TTrends in the Opto-Electronic component automation platform show movement toward leveled programs that give flexibility, scalability, and integration in Opto-Electronic components. The Opto-Electronic component market and long-term growth is expected to be greater than 30% per year. Ludwig Eichner, Senior Engineer at Thorlabs, said, "Our expertise in bringing products from concept to market in a rapid turn-around time is a crucial requirement in this field." Eichner went on to say that this rapid turn-around will reduce component assembly and bench tests, which remain the largest cost. Dr. Eichner added, "The push to drive R&D innovations into production and yet have a changing mechanism to diverge as the market changes are Thorlabs' strong points."