WHAT: Digital Rochester’s Rising Stars
WHEN: Thursday, February 11th; 7:30 am – 9:30 am
WHERE: Rochester Museum & Science Center, Bausch Auditorium
657 East Ave. (click for map/directions)
The Rochester Top 100 Companies list is a celebration of successful companies that have risen above economic downturn and business struggles. Join us as we highlight two companies that embraced technology to transform manufacturing into some of the most needed technology today. Both of these companies beat the odds so greatly that they made it to the Rochester Top 100 Companies of 2009! The leaders of these companies will share with you their struggles and strengths, their ability to change and how they strive for continued business success – all while motivating the people around them in a very challenging technological environment.
This event has been made possible by The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester and Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE). Please scroll down for full information on these generous sponsors.
Advance Registration is required for this event. Please scroll down or click here for registration instructions.
SPEAKER BIOS
Mark Gibson, President and Co-Founder, Xelic, Inc. – Mark is responsible for business development for both the IP core and design services businesses at Xelic. He also leads project teams and is the chief architect for many consulting projects. Mark has over twenty five years of experience in system architecture, project management, ASIC, FPGA and printed circuit board design.
Prior to founding Xelic Mark was a Technical Manager and Principal Engineer at LSI Logic. Mark managed and participated in numerous multi-million gate ASIC develop teams. He is also a leader in high speed clocking, system design, architecture definition and verification. Mark also ran his own consulting company and was a senior engineer at ABB, formerly Taylor Instruments.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology and an Associates in Applied Science for SUNY Alfred. In his spare time he enjoys racing catamaran sailboats, mountain biking, racquetball and coaching his daughter’s travel soccer team.
Mike Bechtold, President, OptiPro Systems – Mike is a 1976 Graduate from SUNY Cortland, with a BS in education. Working at The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT, he found his love for the mechanical engineering world. In 1981, Mike co-founded OptiPro, which evolved into a company designing and building CNC machines tools for the metalworking, manufacturing sector.
In 1991 the “Opticam SX project” with APOMA and the UofR/ COM propelled OptiPro’s focus toward affordable, deterministic manufacturing and measuring solutions for precision optics. “Being the ‘dreamer’ of our engineering team, they often look at me ‘cross-eyed’ until they realize I’m serious. Then get excited about the research ahead!” says Mike.
Each project is an expedition with plenty of rough terrain and obstacles to overcome. Success breeds more success as our team of Engineers’ find these interesting and challenging hurdles not impenetrable walls. A research team with this shared vision and attitude succeeds. External skepticism and doubt adds fuel for our tenacity.
COMPANY PROFILES
Xelic, Inc. – is a privately held engineering services and standards based core provider company. Xelic is entirely owned by the staff with whom you work. Each of us has a significant, vested interest in the success of the company. Our future depends on exceeding customer expectations and we are driven to achieve that goal. It is our sincere hope that you will come to rely upon the commitment of the Xelic team.
By maintaining a culture focused on honesty, communication, and standards of work we continue to create strong partnerships. The Xelic Model delivers unprecedented value that translates to cost savings, first-pass design success and meeting time-to-market goals. Our customer testimonials show that we can deliver.
Xelic offers services in the areas of ASIC/FPGA design, circuit board design, and microprocessor firmware. In addition, we provide standards based cores to allow our customers the ability to focus on their proprietary Intellectual Property (IP) development.
OptiPro Systems, Inc. – has been involved with deterministic processing programs since the inception of the University of Rochester Center for Optics Manufacturing (now merged with the Laser Lab for Energetics). OptiPro was one of the first companies to commercialize the revolutionary Opticam® series of optical grinding platforms. Fabrication products include CNC Optical Machining Centers and CAD/CAM software for 4/5 axis grinding and polishing of spherical, aspherical and conformal optics. The popular low-cost eSX 150 is quickly becoming the industry standard for manufacturing complex optical components.
GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:
The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester is ranked among the top business schools nationally and internationally by media and publications such as BusinessWeek, the Financial Times of London, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. You’ve always stood out among your peers. Now it is time to take the next step to make your mark on the rest of the world. The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, is the place to do it!
Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE) is a regional economic development organization that supports business attraction and expansion, as well as entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the Greater Rochester, NY nine-county region. GRE collaborates with businesses, universities, not-for-profit organizations and government unifying regional economic development activities. GRE is pleased to support Rochester’s Rising Stars!
REGISTRATION: Advance registration is required for this event. Tickets are available at the two rates listed below. (If you would like to become a Digital Rochester Supporting Member and receive a preferred rate for future DR events, please click here!)
$10 – General Admission Rate
$5 – Preferred Rate for Digital Rochester Supporting Members
