Board of Directors

Yves LeMaitre

Yves LeMaitre joined Lightwave Logic’s board of directors in August 2024 as a photonics industry veteran with 30+ years’ experience in the Optical Network and AI/Datacenter industry, as well as in global technology, corporate strategy and marketing. Yves has a proven track record as a trusted business advisor and transformational growth CEO, leading teams with an emphasis on corporate strategy, customer relationships, technology innovation and commercial execution.

Since 2021, Yves has provided strategic leadership and business development consulting services in the optical communications, materials processing, consumer electronics, automotive, aerospace and defense, and life sciences sectors. He currently is a strategic board advisor to Trumpf Photonic Components, the global technology company specializing in developing lasers for optics. He is a strategic advisor to the optical, RF, and microelectronics division of Sanmina.

As part of his consulting practice, Yves led the Optical Coherent Division of IPG Photonics, and advised and oversaw its divestiture to Lumentum. Earlier in his career, he was SVP of Luna Innovations’ North America business operation (following the acquisition of RIO Lasers, where he was President). For 10 years, he held roles of increasing responsibility through multiple acquisitions at Oclaro (acquired by Lumentum), ultimately becoming Lumentum’s Chief Strategy Officer. He was key to positioning Oclaro as a leader in optical connectivity and driving growth of indium phosphide lasers in datacenter segments (now generative AI front-end networks).

Yves LeMaitre earned a master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from Nantes University in France. He also holds an engineering degree from Telecom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris.

James S. Marcelli

James (Jim) Marcelli is Lightwave Logic’s chief financial officer with responsibilities including treasury, budgeting, compliance, audit coordination, financial systems, and controller oversight. Jim also serves as chief operating officer, overseeing Lightwave Logic’s day-to-day operations and efficiency initiatives.

Jim became corporate secretary in March 2018. From August 2008 to April 2012, Jim served as Lightwave Logic’s president and chief executive officer.

During his career, Jim has served as the president and chief executive officer of multiple start-up and growth companies including NTI, a high-tech manufacturing company, and LoCal Sales Inc., a business services company that he founded. He has held senior management roles at Teradyne Corp. and Sanmina Corp, which he co-founded, and positions across engineering, sales, marketing, operations and finance.

Jim served as a mentor for the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Program (I-Corps). He has served on the boards of non-profits and business advisory boards, including the University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs Engineering School.

Ronald A. Bucchi

Ron Bucchi C.P.A., C.G.M.A. is Chairman of Lightwave Logic’s board of directors, of which he has been a member since June 2012. During his career, Ron has served in CFO roles and provided CEO consulting, strategic planning, mergers, acquisitions, business sales and tax consultation to both domestic and international companies. He is a financial expert for Audit Committee purposes.

Ron is currently Treasurer and director of the Petit Family Foundation, Inc. and a director of the Farmington Bank Foundation. He served as lead director and chair of the Audit Committee of First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc. (until its sale in 2018), where he also served on its Governance and Loan Committees. Additionally, Ron has served on numerous community boards and is past chair of the Wheeler Clinic and the Wheeler Regional Family YMCA of Greater Hartford.

Ron is a Chartered Global Management Accountant of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and a member of the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Education program with completed course studies in general board governance, audit, and compensation.

Craig Ciesla

Craig Ciesla is a member of Lightwave Logic’s board of directors since January 2022. He is vice president for hardware engineering at 10X Genomics, a leading life sciences company. Previously, Craig served as Illumina Inc.’s vice president and head of advanced platforms and devices, leading a team driving innovation in sequencing platforms, microfluidics, and nanofabrication.

During his career, Craig has held a variety of fiber optics industry leadership roles, including for Intel, JDSU, Bookham (now Lumentum), Ignis Optics. At Kaiam, as vice president of engineering, he was responsible for the development and production of 100G transceivers. As the founding CEO of Tactus Technology, Craig co-invented its polymer morphing screen technology.

Craig holds a BSc (Hons.) in Applied Physics and doctorate in Physics from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

Thomas M. Connelly, Jr.

Tom Connelly is a member of Lightwave Logic’s board of directors since September 2024. He served as CEO of the American Chemical Society, one of the largest scientific societies with 170,000 members worldwide. Previously, he was Chief Innovation Officer of DuPont and a member of its Office of the Chief Executive. Among his business responsibilities were performance materials and applied biosciences. He directed technical organizations and businesses while based in the US, Europe and Asia. Among the DuPont businesses he led were Delrin®, Kevlar®, Teflon®, and Sorona®.

Dr. Connelly holds degrees in chemical engineering (highest honors) and economics from Princeton University, and as a Winston Churchill Scholar he received a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge. As a member of the National Academy of Engineering, he chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s committee for the Division on Earth and Life Studies. In addition, he has held advisory roles to the U.S. government and Republic of Singapore.

Frederick J. Leonberger

Fred Leonberger is an industry-leading technologist in photonics and fiber optics, and is a member of Lightwave Logic’s board of directors since April 2017.

Fred is best known as one of the pioneers of the integrated optical modulator technology that has been used for 20+ years to encode data at multi-Gb/s rates in long-haul fiber optic networks, aka the Internet superhighways. He is Principal of EOvation Advisors LLC, a private technology and business advisory firm, and has been a member of the boards of ten photonics companies. He is a retired senior vice president and chief technology officer of JDS Uniphase Corp., (now Lumentum), where from 1995 until 2003, he played a lead role in technology strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and intellectual property activities.

In 1992, Fred co-founded and became general manager of United Technologies Photonics. He joined United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) in 1984 as manager of Photonics and Applied Physics. In his early career with the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, he and his team developed a breakthrough analog-to- digital converter device incorporating micron-scale guided-wave modulator integration on a single chip.

Fred was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2000. He has received several industry awards, and was honored with the 2014 Connecticut Medal of Technology for his accomplishments, primarily in the area of electro-optic devices. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Fred holds a PhD in electrical engineering from MIT.

Laila Partridge

Laila Partridge is a member of the Lightwave Logic’s board of directors since August 2023. She has 30+ years of executive experience in technology, corporate innovation and finance across a wide range of technologies, including telecommunications, internet infrastructure, AI, internet of things, and more.

Laila is founder and chief executive officer of The HardTech Project, which addresses the funding gap for early-stage hardware start-ups at scale. Previously, she directed a global effort as Managing Director of the STANLEY +Techstars Accelerator to identify and invest in innovative technologies for industrial applications with an emphasis on electrification, sustainability and advanced manufacturing. She also was a Director of Strategic Investments at Intel Capital during its formative years. Laila began her career at Wells Fargo, where she also served as VP of Corporate Banking, leading complex corporate finance transactions for senior secured debt agencies in the Midwest.

Laila was named one of the ten “2017 Women to Watch in Science and Technology” by Boston Business
Journal. She holds a bachelor’s degree with honors from Wellesley College.

Siraj Nour El-Ahmadi

Siraj Nour El-Ahmadi is a member of Lightwave Logic’s board of directors since October 2013. He is chief commercial officer and general manager of data products of Plume, the Silicon Valley company delivering cloud-managed, adaptive WiFi services to smart spaces and many of the largest CSPs globally. He also leads strategy and corporate development, including M&A and strategic partnerships to maintain and expand industry leadership and operations in 15+ countries.

Siraj brings 30+ years of experience developing and scaling multiple industry-first, award-winning technology products and solutions exceeding $1B in revenues. Prior to Plume, Siraj co-founded and served as CEO of Menara Networks for 15 years (acquired by NASDAQ: IPGP). Earlier in his career, Siraj was vice president of product line management of Qtera Corp., a technology start-up later acquired by Nortel. He served as vice president for marketing and product management of Nortel, where he was responsible for the OPTera LH 4000 ULR product. As a transmission engineer at WilTel (WorldCom), he evaluated and deployed the world’s first bi-directional EDFA and bi-directional WDM transmission.

Siraj serves on the Jonsson School Industrial Advisory Council of the University of Texas-Dallas, and advises several technology companies on technology productization and go-to-market strategies. He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, the international honor society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Christoph Harder

Dr. Christoph Harder is currently the president and co-founder of Swissphotonics, a non-profit association that promotes the competitiveness of its Member Companies, research organisations and universities in the field of photonics in basic and applied science, technology development, manufacturing and selling of photonics components and applications. He has held a variety of staff and management positions at ETH, Caltech, IBM, Uniphase, JDS Uniphase, Nortel and Bookham. In addition he has served on the board of other companies, he was the cofounder of the IBM Zurich Laser Diode Enterprise which pioneered the 980nm high power pump laser now used ubiquitously in telecom. He is an expert in ultrahigh reliability laser diodes for telecom, industrial and consumer applications. He is an OSA Fellow with more than 100 refereed papers and 20 patents and has chaired many technical conferences. Dr. Harder received the ETH Diploma in 1979 and the Master and PhD in EE in 1980 and 1983 from Caltech, Pasadena, USA.

Franky So

Dr. Franky So is currently the Walter and Ida Freeman Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the North Carolina State University. Previously, he was the Rolf E Hummel Professor of Electronic Materials and Associate Chair for Research in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida.  Prior to joining academia, he conducted industry-leading research on OLEDS (organic light-emitting diodes) at Motorola and OSRAM Opto-Semiconductors for 14 years. Dr. So is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, IEEE,  OSA and SPIE. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Materials Science and Engineering Reports and Associate Editor of four other research journals and chairs the OLED Symposium of the SPIE Optics and Photonics conference.  Dr. So holds 80 issued patents and has 14 pending. He has over 150 publications and has a Google H-index of over 70. Dr. So received the PhD in EE from the University of Southern California, the MS in Material Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the BA in Physics from Hamilton College.

Andreas Umbach

Mr. Andreas Umbach is currently CEO of AUcept Consulting, a firm which offers coaching and consulting on entrepreneurship and photonics technologies based on his experiences with the full lifecycle from founding a technology start-up to participating in international mergers and acquisitions on both sides of the deal. Previously he has headed leading organizations in high speed InP device and Photonic Integrated Circuit design and manufacturing, including as CEO of u²t Photonics and VP and CTO of Finisar Germany. At HHI Berlin he led efforts in both InP and polymers photonics. Mr. Umbach holds a Vordiplom in Physics from Technische Hochschule Darmstadt and a Dipl.-Phys in Engineering Physics/Applied Physics from Technische Universität Berlin.

Joseph A. Miller, Jr.

Dr. Joseph A. Miller, Jr. has served as a director of our Company since May 10, 2011. From 2002 to May 2012, Dr. Miller served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Corning Incorporated, having joined Corning Incorporated in 2001 as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Corning Incorporated, Dr. Miller was with E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Inc., where he served as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President for Research and Development since 1994. Dr. Miller began his career with DuPont in 1966. Dr. Miller is a director of Greatbatch, Inc. and Dow Corning Corporation and holds a doctorate degree in Chemistry from Penn State University.