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Edmund Optics' Allan Kreutzer retires, Thomas Kessler named successor

Nov. 7, 2010

Edmund Optics announced that Thomas Kessler will advance to executive VP, global sales, following the planned retirement of Allan Kreutzer.

Gail Overton

Barrington, NJ--Photonics and optical components manufacturer Edmund Optics announced that Thomas Kessler will advance to executive VP, global sales, effective February 1, 2011, following the planned retirement of Allan Kreutzer at the end of January.

Kessler has been responsible for all of Edmund Optics' European sales and distribution operations as VP, European Operations, from his office in Karlsruhe, Germany. He will assume the additional responsibilities of managing the company's Americas and Asian sales teams as the company continues to aggressively expand its sales growth and standard product offerings.

"With a current global sales increase of 25%, it will be a very exciting time to be leading the global sales team," Kessler said. "I look forward to expanding our operations into new countries while also building our large account customers in our main markets including the United States, Japan and Germany."

Kessler joined Edmund Optics two years ago, and most recently served with Schott in Mainz, Germany, as director of product management, sales, marketing and supply chain for Schott's Advanced Optics business. Kessler earned his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in physics from J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main.

Allan Kreutzer, an optics industry veteran, will retire in late January after more than 30 years in the optics industry. Kreutzer served a variety of premier optics companies and manufacturers, including Lambda Research and Schott, before joining Edmund Optics. Kreutzer has been looking forward to enjoying more time with his wife and grandchildren, and hopes to stay active in the optics community and remains passionate about growing the global optics industry.

"Allan has done a tremendous job in developing our global sales team," CEO Robert Edmund said. "We are thrilled to now be directly engaged with such markets as Taiwan, Italy, and several South American countries, while also accelerating our sales in large markets like China," Edmund continued. "The global sales team is an impressive group, and we have high expectations for 2011 and 2012," he concluded.

SOURCE: Edmund Optics

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About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.