Management Bios

Dr Navin Suyal, CTO: was a co-founder of Terahertz Photonics before founding Exxelis Limited. At Terahertz, Navin was responsible for the development of Truemode polymer technology and a groundbreaking sol-gel based silica on silicon technology. Navin is a leading scientist in optical materials with over 30 publications and a number of patents submitted in this area. As well as considerable research and development experience, Navin has optical fiber production experience through 3 years in a start-up company. Navin holds a Master of Technology degree in Materials Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a Dr. Ing. degree from the Institute for New Materials, Saarbruecken, Germany.

Guy Robertson, General Manager: began his career at Hewlett Packard (later Agilent Technologies) as a laser driver IC designer, later becoming principal transmitter designer. In 2004 he became the first hire into the Sales and Marketing team at Nanotech Semiconductor, being responsible for all Business Development activities with customers worldwide and in charge of specifying all of Nanotech’s early products. As Nanotech grew, Guy focussed on Sales, first in Europe and then in the Far East, covering Korea, Japan and Singapore, taking responsibility for some of Nanotech's largest customers. Nanotech and Exxelis share the same Chairman and major investor, and Guy was asked to manage and grow the Exxelis business in the early Summer of 2010. Since October 2010 he is based at the factory in Taiwan. Guy holds a Master of Engineering degree in Electronics from the University of Edinburgh.

Dr Paul Blair, Director Of Optical Product Development: was a co-founder of Ovisor Technologies Ltd before joining Exxelis Ltd in 2008. At Ovisor, Paul was the Director of Technology, responsible for the development of the company’s advanced, integrated optical communication products and the technical interface to customers for next generation systems. Paul has a proven track record in R&D, applications development, project management and customer support, with patents relating to optical design and fabrication, and numerous technical publications in the application of optics. Paul holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Physics from the University of Manchester and a PhD from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Gary Steele: Chairman Exxelis also has access to experience and contacts in the venture capital community through its Angel Investor, Gary Steele. Gary is CEO and founder of Nanotech Ltd (www.nanosemi.com) and has made investments in a number of small companies. He was founder and CEO of Microcosm Communications Ltd which sold to Conexant Systems Inc for £120M in January 2000.