Executive Team
Douglas Kahn
Chairman and CEO
Mr. Kahn is an internationally recognized entrepreneur who brings more than 25 years of executive management experience to Ahura Scientific. He has an extensive track record of leadership in high technology companies and is tasked with guiding the company through the next phases of its development, driving rapid market penetration and growth.
Prior to joining Ahura Scientific, Mr. Kahn was CEO and President of PanAmSat Corporation, a leading international provider of satellite-based communications services. He also served as Chairman and CEO of Easel Corporation, leading to a successful IPO and ten years of growth. Mr. Kahn serves on the board of Tetragenetics, Inc. and AeroSat Corporation. He holds a B.S. in Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Stanford University.
Dr. Daryoosh Vakhshoori
Founder and President
Dr. Vakhshoori is the founder of Ahura Scientific. He has more than 20 years of experience integrating marketplace dynamics and scientific possibilities to build businesses based upon opto-electronics. Throughout his career, he has successfully led cross-functional research and product development teams.
Dr. Vakhshoori worked as research scientist at Bell Laboratories before becoming a co-founder of CoreTek, Inc. which was later acquired by Nortel. He has held positions as V.P. of Business Development, V.P. of Engineering, CTO and CEO and holds more than 28 filed or pending patents. Dr. Vakhshoori received his B.S. from the University of California at Irvine and holds a Ph.D. in Quantum Electronics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Michael Falvey
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Falvey is Ahura Scientific’s Chief Financial Officer responsible for the leadership of the finance, information services and human resource teams. Mr. Falvey brings more than 25 years of financial management experience in a number of high-growth technology businesses with a strong focus on strategic planning and corporate growth.
Prior to Ahura Scientific, Mr. Falvey served as CFO for Aspect Medical Systems, a publicly traded provider of brain monitoring technologies, where he oversaw revenue growth from $50 million to $100 million during his tenure. Prior to this role, he was Vice President of Finance for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a leading biotechnology company. Mr. Falvey’s early career was spent with General Electric, Digital Equipment Corporation and Fidelity Investments where he served in a series of financial management roles. Mr. Falvey brings significant experience leading public companies including fund raising, investor and analyst relations, mergers & acquisitions, and alliances. Mr. Falvey received his B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and his MBA from the Sloan School at MIT where he was named a Seley Scholar.
Kevin O'Brien
Vice President of Finance
Mr. O'Brien is Ahura Scientific's Vice President of Finance. He brings more than twenty years of operating experience in emerging technology companies, including raising capital, building systems and infrastructure to manage rapid growth, taking two companies public, and extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Ahura Scientific, Mr. O'Brien was the Vice President of Operations at OuterLink Corporation, a manufacturer of satellite communication equipment where he helped lead the company to a successful merger with Digital Angel Corporation. Prior to that, Mr. O'Brien was the CFO and Treasurer of Innoveda, a developer of electronic design automation software. During his tenure, Innoveda grew from $50 million to more than $100 million in revenues, became a public company and ultimately was acquired by Mentor Graphics. Mr. O'Brien is a CPA and holds a B.S. in accounting from Northeastern University and an MBA from Bentley College.
Dr. Masud Azimi
Vice President of Optoelectronic Packaging
Dr. Azimi is a co-founder and Vice President of Optoelectronic Packaging at Ahura Scientific with more than 14 years of experience building industry leading skills in optoelectronic packaging. Prior to Ahura Scientific, Dr. Azimi served as Vice President of Optoelectronic Platform Development at Nortel Networks. Prior to this, Dr. Azimi was a technical co-founder and Director of Optoelectronic Packaging of CoreTek, Inc. Dr. Azimi was previously a member of the technical staff at ITRC, working on fabrication and characterization of specialty optical fibers. Dr. Azimi received his B.S. and M.S. from Sharif University, and Ph.D. in from Syracuse University all in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Azimi holds or co-holds eleven U.S. patents.
Dr. Kevin J. Knopp
Senior Vice President
Dr. Kevin J. Knopp is a co-founder and Senior Vice President at Ahura Scientific. With more than 10 years of experience in optoelectronics research and development, Dr. Knopp leads Ahura Scientific's system engineering team. His responsibilities include product development and new product introduction. He also serves as principal investigator for much of the company's grant research.
Prior to Ahura Scientific, Dr. Knopp was Manager of Vertical-Cavity Laser Development at Nortel Networks (formerly CoreTek). Dr. Knopp received his B.S.E.E from Boston University in 1994, and his M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Optics from the University of Colorado, in 1997 and 1999. He conducted his thesis research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado under awards from both NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) and NIST. Dr. Knopp is an inventor on more than 10 awarded or pending U.S. patents. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen refereed journal articles and has presented numerous papers at international conferences. Dr. Knopp is also a member of the Boston University Industrial Advisory Board.
Duane Sword
Vice President of Marketing & International Sales
Duane Sword has spent the past ten years in various technology ventures, primarily hardware-based platforms for telecommunications test and monitoring. His expertise spans marketing communications, product management and roadmap development. In his role as Vice President of Marketing for Ahura Scientific, Mr. Sword is responsible for overall marketing strategy, marketing communications and product management.
Prior to joining Ahura Scientific, Mr. Sword served as Vice President, Product Management for Empirix, a Voice over IP test and monitoring supplier to major service providers and equipment manufacturers. Mr. Sword also held numerous product management, marketing, and business development roles at Agilent Technologies and Hewlett-Packard throughout his career. He has worked extensively in the telecommunications industry from wireline to wireless radio access networks and spent more than ten years in broadband communications. Recipient of a 2006 "Top 100 in the Voice Industry" recognition and a regular speaker at industry seminars and conferences, Mr. Sword holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) in Australia.
Dr. Peidong Wang
Vice President of Process Technology
Dr. Wang is a co-founder and Vice President of Process Technology at Ahura Scientific. Dr. Wang has more than 16 years of optoelectronics research and development experience and leads the company's fabrication activities, including process integration and precision optical thin film coatings. Prior to Ahura Scientific, Dr. Wang served as Chief Process Technologist at Nortel and prior to Nortel, was a co-founder, responsible for tunable filter and VCSEL chip development at CoreTek.
Dr. Wang began his career as a research professor at University of Notre Dame following his post-doctoral research in the nano- and optoelectronics group at University of Glasgow. Dr. Wang received his BS degree from Zhejiang University, P.R. China, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Imperial College, London. Dr. Wang holds seven patents and is widely published.
Dr. Christopher J. Pinzone
Director, Photonic Materials
Dr. Pinzone is a co-founder and Director of Photonic Materials at Ahura Scientific, bringing more than 29 years of experience in compound semiconductor crystal growth and electronic materials science to the role. At Ahura Scientific, he is responsible for active photonic materials production and development, and oversees facilities safety and security.
Prior to founding Ahura Scientific, Dr. Pinzone was Director of R&D Epitaxy and Characterization at Nortel Networks. Previously, he was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ working on optoelectronic devices, materials and processes in research, development, and manufacturing environments. Dr. Pinzone received his B.A. from Rutgers College, his M.S. from Stevens Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Ceramics and Materials Science and Engineering from Rutgers University. Dr. Pinzone holds numerous international patents in materials science, has presented his work at many international symposia, and has published over 25 refereed journal papers.
Mark Spillane
Director, Operations
Mr. Spillane is Ahura Scientific's Director of Operations, and is responsible for all supply chain management, materials and purchasing, customer program management, production manufacturing, and quality. Charged with building and leading a fully integrated operations organization, Mr. Spillane brings a unique skill set and perspective to the company. Prior to joining Ahura Scientific, Mr. Spillane held senior technical operations management and test engineering positions at Photonex, Lucent, Nexabit Networks, Mack Technologies and Stratus Computer. While at both Stratus and Mack, he was involved in a leadership capacity in building “green-field” manufacturing facilities. He holds a B.S. in Management of Technology from Nichols College and has presented numerous papers on test engineering and supply chain management.
Arran Bibby
Director, Federal Programs
Mr. Bibby is Ahura Scientific's Director of Federal Programs, and leads the company's direct sales activity in the U.S. federal and military markets. He brings more than 15 years of spectrographic and detection instruments sales and engineering experience to Ahura Scientific, along with a proven track record of direct sales to the military, government agencies, hazmat teams and first responders. Before joining Ahura Scientific, Mr. Bibby was an original sales team member at SensIR, a subsidiary of Smith Detection. Prior to SensIR, Mr. Bibby led technical sales teams for Specac Inc. and ATI Mattson. He has authored technical papers in the Journal of Forensic Sciences and Applied Spectroscopy.