Shelton, Connecticut and Toronto, Ontario -- OPEL Technologies Inc. has announced that it is welcoming Mark Benadiba, Peter Copetti and Sam Peralta to the board of directors.
Mr. Benadiba currently serves on the board of directors of Cott Corp. (NYSE:COT)(TSX:BCB) and will serve as Executive Chairman of the Board of OPEL. Mr. Benadiba was involved in helping Cott Corp. shift its strategy to refocus on its core business activities in late 2008, and has experience negotiating licensing agreements.
Mr. Copetti will serve as an executive board member. Mr. Copetti has extensive capital markets and managerial experience and will be focused on rationalizing costs while defining the strategic direction of the Company with regard to the Planar Optoelectronic Technology ("POET") semiconductor platform.
Dr. Peralta is pleased to rejoin the board of directors; he had served on OPEL boards since January 2007; all issues leading to his February 2012 resignation have been resolved. Until May, he served on the board of Axiom NDT Corporation; stepping down from there allows time to help renew OPEL's POET strategy. Dr. Peralta has broad experience in the high-technology sector; he brings a continuity of technological vision to the reformulated board.
Lawrence Kunkel and Tristram Collins have both decided not to stand for re-election to the board of directors in order to pursue other opportunities. To allow for the new directors to join, they have both agreed to step down at this time. The Company would like to thank both Mr. Kunkel and Mr. Collins for their efforts, and wishes them both well in their future endeavors.
A core component of the Company's strategy going forward is to continue to develop the POET platform. POET enables monolithic fabrication of integrated circuit gallium arsenide devices containing both electronic and optical elements on a single wafer. Dr. Geoff Taylor, the Company's Chief Scientist, and his team have developed the technology over the past 18 years. The Company has 36 patents issued and 14 patents pending in both its PV systems and for its semiconductor POET process.