Management Team
Bruce Berger
Bruce Berger is President and CEO of Verrillon, Inc. Prior to joining Verrillon, Mr. Berger served as an Executive Officer of Digi International and Sr. Vice President and General Manager for NetSilicon Incorporated, a subsidiary of Digi, engaged in silicon-based networking products. Prior to this, Mr. Berger served as Sr. Vice President/Managing Director of Digi International's European and Asian Operations, based in Dortmund, Germany. Prior to joining Digi International, Mr. Berger served as Vice President and General Manager of TeCom Incorporated. Mr. Berger holds a BS in Marketing and a BS in Operations Management degrees from Florida State University, as well as an MBA from the University of Tampa.
Dr. Abdel Soufiane
Dr. Soufiane is Founder, Chairman, and CTO of Verrillon, Inc. Prior to founding Verrillon, Inc., Dr. Soufiane served as manager of advanced development and applications engineering at SpecTran Specialty Optics Company where he directed the development of advanced preforms and fiber products used in the telecommunications industry. Prior to that, Dr. Soufiane worked for FullSpectrum, Inc. as director of materials development and for the Centre d’Etudes des Materiaux Advances (CEMA) as a research scientist developing new generation fluoride fibers for mid-infrared applications. Dr. Soufiane received his Ph.D. from the University of Rennes, France and is the holder of many patents in the field of advanced materials and optical-related technologies as well as a recipient of the prestigious R&D 100 Award.
Edward Connor
Ed Connor is Vice President of Sales & Marketing of Verrillon, Inc. Prior to joining Verrillon, Mr. Connor led Premise Communication Solutions, an optical fiber and cable Sales and Marketing company. Prior to that, he was CEO of ASI/ Silica Machinery, a California based optical fiber manufacturing process technology and equipment company. Prior to this, he was Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Lucent Technologies - Sturbridge and its predecessor company, SpecTran Corporation. There he was responsible for worldwide optical fiber sales, marketing, and business development. Mr. Connor holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from Boston University and did graduate work at Brown University.
Dr. Kanxian Wei
Dr. Wei directs Verrillon’s Engineering and R&D activities. Prior to joining Verrillon, Dr. Wei served as Director of Preform and Fiber Fabrication at LaserSharp Corporation where he developed key fiber technologies for Raman gain modules and subsystems. Prior to working at LaserSharp, Dr. Wei was MTS/Manager for MCVD Development Engineering at Lucent Technologies. Dr. Wei holds a Ph. D. and MS degree from Rutgers University, as well as MS and BS degrees from ECUST, China. Dr. Wei has published several papers in international, peer-reviewed journals and has presented at a number of industry conferences.
Gary Drenzek
Gary Drenzek directs Operations activities at Verrillon. Mr. Drenzek’s career has been focused entirely in the fiber optics industry. Beginning in 1983, Mr. Drenzek worked for a number of specialty optical fiber companies, in roles that included manufacturing engineering management, equipment and process engineering, and new product development. Prior to joining Verrillon, Mr. Drenzek was instrumental in designing the manufacturing infrastructure at Lucent’s Specialty Fiber facility in Avon, Connecticut.
Dr. Imtiaz Majid
Dr. Majid directs Product Management activities at Verrillon. Prior to joining Verrillon, Dr. Majid worked at IPG Photonics Corporation, where he managed the Laser Diode Engineering team. He developed key packaging technologies and theoretical techniques for estimating diode ensemble reliability. Prior to working at IPG Photonics, Dr. Majid was R&D Manager at Lucent Specialty Fiber Technologies and Senior Scientist at SpecTran Corporation. Dr. Majid holds a Ph. D. in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT, a Ph. D. in Physics from Boston University and a Masters Degree in Theoretical Physics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Majid continues to publish extensively in peer-reviewed journals and has presented numerous invited papers at international conferences.