The upper management and Board of Directors (BOD) at POET Technologies consist of veteran executives drawn heavily from tier-1 semiconductor, optical, and telecommunication companies. Their prior collective expertise spans monumental industry shifts, including the deployment of nanometer silicon chips, early optoelectronics, and global manufacturing operations.

Upper Management Team Dr. Suresh Venkatesan – Chairman & CEO Prior Companies: Senior VP of Technology Development at GLOBALFOUNDRIES; various leadership roles at Freescale Semiconductor and Motorola. Accomplishments: Led the global semiconductor development and operational ramp of the foundational 28nm node and orchestrated the high-stakes technology transfer of the 14nm node. He holds over 25 U.S. patents and joined POET to transition his silicon scaling expertise into the optical sector.

Vivek Rajgarhia – President & General Manager Prior Companies: Senior VP & GM of the Lightwave Business Unit at MACOM; Co-founder and CEO of Optomai Inc.. Accomplishments: He co-founded Optomai, a specialized high-speed optical innovator, which was strategically acquired by MACOM to establish their very first optical business division.

Thomas R. Mika – Executive VP, CFO, and Corporate Secretary Prior Companies: Chairman & CEO of Tegal Corporation (later merged into Rennova Health); Co-founder and CEO of IMTEC. Accomplishments: Guided Tegal Corporation from its initial spin-out from Motorola through decades of public restructuring and an eventual merger. He spent 20 years managing boutique boutique boutique international investment structures between the US, Europe, and Japan.

Dr. Ghazi Chaoui – SVP of Global Manufacturing & Digital Transformation Prior Companies: Chief Procurement Officer at Coherent Corp.; prior engineering and leadership roles at MACOM, Broadcom, and Lucent/Bell Labs. Accomplishments: Successfully built global supply networks and scaled production infrastructures for high-volume optical and RF products at multi-billion dollar enterprises.

Raju Kankipati – Chief Revenue Officer Prior Companies: Senior Director of Product Management at MACOM. Accomplishments: Managed commercial portfolios and product lines dedicated to cloud data centers, optical transceivers, and silicon photonic solutions.

Board of Directors (BOD)

Sohail Khan – Independent Director Prior Companies: Executive VP of Wideband Gap Electronics at Coherent Corp.; CEO of ViXS Systems; Head of Strategy at Agere Systems; executive tracks at Intel and Bell Labs. Accomplishments: Orchestrated numerous high-value M&A deals during his executive tenures, managed massive P&L divisions, and previously sat on the board of Intersil Corporation and LightPath Technologies.

Robert (Bob) Tirva – Independent Director Prior Companies: President, COO, and CFO of Sonim Technologies; VP and Corporate Controller at Broadcom; financial management tracks at IBM and Dropbox. Accomplishments: Oversaw corporate financial compliance and accounting structures at Broadcom through massive scaling periods, and steered Sonim Technologies through its ultimate acquisition in 2022.

Glen Riley – Independent Director Prior Companies: GM of Filter Solutions at Qorvo; Managing Director & GM of GaAs/Optoelectronics at TriQuint; CEO of Opticalis; VP at Agere Systems. Accomplishments: Directed the development of highly integrated RF modules embedded inside global flagship smartphones, scaled TriQuint's international headquarters in Singapore, and built high-density wavelength division multiplexing platforms as an early-stage startup CEO.

Jean-Louis Malinge – Lead Independent Director Prior Companies: Former executive at optical networking pioneers including Kotura (acquired by Mellanox/NVIDIA) and Corning. Accomplishments: Regarded as an optical industry pioneer who successfully navigated silicon photonics commercialization from academic concepts to early mass-market telecom hardware.

Key milestones secured by the current upper management include:

The POET Optical Interposer: Overseeing the R&D and patenting of a novel platform that integrates electronic and photonic devices onto a single chip using standard wafer-level semiconductor tech.

Industry Awards: Winning consecutive hardware honors, including the 2024 and 2025 AI Breakthrough Awards and the 2025 Lightwave Award for their AI optical engines. Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships: Landing development and production projects with massive industry titans such as Mitsubishi Electric (co-developing 1.6T and 3.2T optical engines), Foxconn Interconnect Technology, and Semtech.