Michael S. Lebby

Michael S. Lebby
PhD, MBA, DEng, CEng

President and CEO

Michael Lebby’s career has spanned all aspects of the optoelectronics and photonics business ranging from research and development, operations, manufacturing, and finance, to sales, marketing, and investing. He holds more than 175 U.S. patents issued in the optoelectronics and photonics field.

Lebby graduated with honors in the UK 1984 and started researching InP-based optoelectronic integrated circuits at RSRE in Malvern. In 1985, Lebby’s research took him to AT&T Bell Laboratories photonics research division where he pursued OEIC-based themes that incorporated both optoelectronic and electronic device functionalities. In 1989 Lebby took his research studies to Motorola's Phoenix Corporate Research Laboratory in Arizona. At Motorola, Lebby developed highly reliable VCSEL based technologies and initiated Motorola’s parallel optics interconnect program that was called Optobus™. As an R&D leader, Lebby led his research team to qualify the VCSEL and packaging technology using traditional Motorola qualification procedures. Lebby broadened his optoelectronic R&D skills through his role as Business Technology Development Manager in 1997. In this role, Lebby managed all aspects of advanced technologies in corporate R&D that included micro-displays, organic LEDs, laser diodes and detector arrays.

In August 1998, Lebby joined AMP (now Tyco) as a member of the Global Optoelectronics Division's management team. At Tyco he was responsible for growing the fiber optic datacom and telecom business through external interactions that included mergers, acquisitions strategic alliances, and technical strategic planning. Lebby drove Tyco’s return into the 1 Gbps Ethernet transceiver market based on VCSEL technology. During the summer of 1999, Lebby joined Intel as a corporate investor and was responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and closing private placement equity deals in the optical networking, component, and semiconductor arenas. Lebby participated in a number of board level activities in the optoelectronics sector.

In January 2001, Lebby founded a new fiber optics company, Ignis Optics, where he served as the CEO. Lebby led the company to secure multinational customers in the telecommunications market. Lebby’s team helped define the XFP standard for 10 Gbps transceivers, which gave the company market leadership on a global level. Ignis Optics was acquired by Bookham Technology in October 2003 and Lebby became responsible for corporate and technical strategy at Bookham Technology.

Dr. Lebby joined OIDA as Executive Director in early 2005 and was elected as the new president and CEO of OIDA on February 17, 2006.

In November 2005, Lebby was elected an IEEE Fellow for contributions to optoelectronics technology, and in November 2007, Lebby was elected an OSA Fellow for photonics leadership and contributions to VCSEL technology.

“OIDA’s focus will be to broaden the horizon of optoelectronics and photonics, develop a pre-eminent membership base, and leverage government connections,” Lebby explained. “We want to become the primary reference in photonics and maintain a focus on quality.”

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