Our People

Mr. James Walker 

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

Chief Executive Officer
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 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.

Samuel Samhan

Chief Financial Officer
​BEc (Accounting), MBA, GAICD

Experience & Expertise

• Strategic and finance leadership
• Development and delivery of growth strategy

Mr Samhan is a highly credentialled senior executive with more than 20 years financial leadership and commercial operations experience. He was previously the Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Digital Wellness – a global health platform. Other roles include Head of Commercial and Business Transformation at Vitality Works – Sanitarium Workplace Health and Wellness, and Commercial Manager at Evolution Healthcare Group.

Sam brings hands-on experience transforming financial and commercial operations to significantly increase profitability.  Sam’s domestic and international expertise in business-model innovation and cost-effective strategies will be invaluable as we continue to scale our laser production capability to meet unmet market needs and grow revenues.

Mr Samhan holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting), Master of Business Administration, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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.

Martin Aguilera

Director of Operations - Fremont
Bs, Physics

• Semiconductor manufacturing operations
• Technology development and productisation
• Held several technical leadership positions in leading photonics organisations

Martin is Director of Operations at BluGlass’ Fremont facility. He has over 25 years of domestic and international experience in manufacturing operations and technology development involving both start-up and established organisations.  Prior to joining BluGlass, Martin served as VP of Operations at Transphorm Inc. and Pentagon Technologies.

Martin has managed several manufacturing operations at companies such as International Rectifier and Intel as well as leading technology development teams at Planar Systems, Digirad Corporation and Neoconix Inc. Martin holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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.

Dr. Ryan Anderson

Senior Laser Scientist
PhD (Physics)

Expertise and Experience:

• Growth and characterisation of nitride materials in a broad range of applications from from lighting to photonic-integrated circuits
• Specialised expertise in the design, growth, and fabrication of GaN laser diodes

Ryan recently received his PhD in Materials Science from UC Santa Barbara and joins BluGlass with nearly a decade of research experience in GaN optoelectronics. He has extensive practice in design, growth, and fabrication of GaN laser diodes.  His focus on novel laser designs has resulted in several authored publications in peer-reviewed journals. Applications-driven research has allowed Ryan to work on a wide variety of projects, from lighting to photonic-integrated circuits, funded by companies and governments. Before earning his graduate degree, Ryan worked as a Process Development Engineer at Cree, where he developed high efficiency GaN material growth of LEDs for several years in a production scale manufacturing environment. Ryan received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.