SYNTEC OPTICS - Key Persons
Al Kapoor has three decades of experience with cutting edge industry formation at either startups or established corporations. His newsletter Pioneering Minds serves over 100,000 industry leaders worldwide to reveal epicenters of new industry formation. He has a Master's degree in Engineering (Material Science, Robotics) and also an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Al was a member of YPO from 1999-2019 and has been a member of The National Scientific Research Honor Society (Sigma Xi) since 1991. Al is on the advisory council for the AIM Academy at MIT that fosters education in photonics integrated circuits. From 2005-2015, Al was an executive volunteer for TiE (largest entrepreneurship non-profit organization in 60 cities and 20 countries), serving as chair of innovation conferences 2006-2008, president in Boston from 2008-2012, and then Global Chairman in 2015.
As Chairman, he also worked with the White House for a year to establish a national and global entrepreneurship program.
Al started his career in 1992 at Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana where he led a new product development team for cam systems. He also worked at BMW in Munich, Germany advising the head of R&D. In 1999, Al began to start ventures like Syntec Optics, Wordingham Technologies, RTM that he grew over tenfold. He has also been involved as an investor in several companies, most recently Spark Photonics, a spinoff from MIT AIM Academy, and an advisor for over a dozen other companies.
Mr. Manzone brings decades of expertise in strategic vision, operational excellence, M&A, talent development, and compensation planning. Mr. Manzone was at McKinsey and Company from 1993-1997, followed by PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) for over a decade, working on many critical initiatives in the global operations including the acquisition and post-close operations integration of Tropicana, Quaker, and Tropicana. Mr. Manzone has held numerous executive leadership roles including President, Europe at Oettinger Davidoff AG; President Consumer Health, Southeast Europe, at Novartis (NYSE: NVS); President, Europe at Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company; and CEO of Whole Earth Brands (NASDAQ: FREE) leading a successful turnaround and doubling in size. Mr. Manzone serves as Director and Member of the Talent & Compensation Committee on the Perrigo (NYSE: PRGO) Board; Member of the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University; President of the Board of the Northwestern Alumni Association; and Director of the Price Albert II of Monaco Foundation for the Environment. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a graduate degree in international business from the Sorbonne University.
Mr. Rosenthal brings decades of expertise in M&A and financings in public and private markets for equity and debt in the communications end-markets. Mr. Rosenthal started his career as an auditor at Deloitte in 1993. As a partner in affiliates of W.R. Huff Asset Management from 2002-2016, he served as an adviser and observer of the board of directors of Virgin Media (NASDAQ: VMED) and as a consultant to the company, providing operations improvement services, financial analysis, and recommendations. From 2007 through 2010, he served as an advisor to the executive management of Time Warner Cable (NASDAQ: TWC). In addition, Mr. Rosenthal worked on financing the bank debt and sub-debt for Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) in a public-to-private market transaction and supported the venture capital investment behind American Idol (NASDAQ: CKXE) and certain IP rights. Mr. Rosenthal served on the Board of Directors of Rentrak (NASDAQ: RENT) from 2008 to 2016 including as non-executive Chairman of the board from 2011 through 2016. Most recently, Mr. Rosenthal has been focused on small and micro-cap equities especially in communications end-markets that is seeing increasing use of optics and photonics, OmniLit's focus. Mr. Rosenthal earned his B.S. from Lehigh University and an MBA at Cornell University.
Job Titles:
- Controller
- in 2022 As Assistant Controller
Drake joined Syntec Optics in 2022 as Assistant Controller and in 2024 he took over the role of Controller. He has experience in general accounting, financial close, budgeting, forecasting, financial statement audits, as well as financial statement preparation and consolidation. Most recently, Drake served as Assistant Division Controller for several divisions of Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ: CWST). Prior to that he worked in public accounting for MMB + Co., performing audit and assurance services with a client base covering a wide variety of industries. Drake is a Certified Public Accountant and earned a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance from the State University of New York Brockport.
Job Titles:
- Chief Manufacturing Officer ( CMO )
Joe Mohr started his career at Wordingham over 25 years ago, engineering and building optical components. Joe's diverse background in Manufacturing Engineering of mechanical components for optics, along with his experience with design for manufacturability and process improvements, enable him to be an effective leader of Syntec Optics. He brings a continuous improvement philosophy to Syntec and Wordingham with an emphasis on customer satisfaction. Joe is responsible for the daily manufacturing at our facility and looks to implement process improvements and to expand and improve our product offerings, facilities and culture to deliver our world-class technologies, quality and skillsets to our customers products.
Robert O. Nelson II has 20+ years of finance, tax, and technology experience. Robert has successfully supported public & private corporations, including optics and photonics companies, in design and transformation of their general accounting, financial close, consolidation, budgeting, and forecasting functions. He has worked in domestic and international areas, advising clients in finance and tax technology optimization projects, tax accounting, tax compliance, and IP planning. Robert has built a proven management track record of successful business transformation. Drawing upon steady leadership, determination, and strategic insight, Robert has leveraged financial and operational best practices as well as sound judgment in guiding teams through the intricacies of aligning organizational performance with corporate strategy. Most recently, as Vice President of Financial Systems at AMG (NASDAQ: AMG), he has worked with the executive management team on enhancing financial operations, business systems, regulatory reporting and business process improvements. Previously, Robert played a key role in SEC compliance for a spin-out of an optics and photonics division from a public company, which now has an over $1B valuation. During his tenure as a consultant, he provided guidance and consultation to CFOs and finance departments on internal control, regulatory reporting, taxation, financial due diligence and systems implementations. While at Deloitte, Robert instructed at many of Deloitte's national technical training sessions covering international and domestic tax concepts and enterprise performance management solutions. Robert is a Certified Public Accountant and earned a Master of Science in Taxation from Bentley University's McCallum Graduate School of Business and a Master of Science in Information Systems from Boston University's Graduate School of Management.
Mr. Bishop brings decades of expertise on regulatory compliance, independent financial audits, and corporate governance. He began his career as an audit manager at KPMG in 1985. He held the positions of Chief Administrative Officer for Barclay's Bank (NYSE: BSC) from 1995-1997. He joined Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) in 1997 retiring as Chief Operating Officer of Deutsche Bank's US Bank after over two decades in 2019. Mr. Bishop served as a senior advisor to the SPAC Thunder Bridge Capital Acquisition II, which merged with indie Semiconductor in 2021 (NASDAQ: INDI). As Chair of the Audit Committee, Mr. Bishop will provide the independent oversight of independent auditors. Mr. Bishop received his BBA from Baruch College and an MBA from St. John's University.