Kotura opens China office as optical components market accelerates

MONTEREY PARK, USA: Kotura Inc., a leading provider of silicon photonics products, announced the opening of an office in Shenzhen, China and the appointment of Yicheng Lu as vice president.

Kotura's presence in China provides greater access and support for their installed customer base, which consists of many of the largest telecom companies in the region. China is recognized as a significant market for optical components, and Kotura's new office will provide sales and marketing, manufacturing and R&D support.

This local presence, led by Lu, enables Kotura to build strategic relationships for manufacturing, product packaging and other key resources required to support new product development. As vice president, Lu will spearhead China activities and establish a foothold for Kotura in this important region. In addition to driving Kotura's business development activities to increase long-term opportunities in China, Lu joins Kotura's executive team in setting the company's strategic direction and is chartered with the expansion of Kotura's customer relationships.

"China is the world's largest telecom market by population and is on its way to becoming the world's largest by revenue as well," explained Jean-Louis Malinge, president and CEO at Kotura. "Shenzhen in particular is home to some of the world's leading telecommunication equipment manufacturers and as such has developed a very strong optical communications infrastructure. Yicheng, with his extensive background in the optical components industry, will be invaluable as we expand our presence in the region."

Lu has more than 17 years experience in optical components and fiber optic sensors. Most recently, he was sales director and country manager of Great China at JDSU. Prior to JDSU, Lu was a sales director at Bookham, in which he achieved a compounded annual revenue growth rate of more than 45 percent. Lu holds bachelors and masters degrees in materials from NPU in China and a Ph.D. in engineering from Brunel University in the UK.

"Kotura has an excellent reputation in the field of silicon photonics and is widely considered to be one of the industry's pioneers," said Lu. "I am pleased to join the Kotura team, as the company seeks to build strategic relationships in the China market and offer continuous support to their Chinese base of installed telecommunications customers."