Astia regualarly facilitates informative conversations for entrepreneurs around the globe to provide innovative, current and relevant information to ensure entrepreneurial success. Please join us this month for...

"ASK THE CEO"

Global conversations for entrepreneurs

Silicon Valley - Tue 9:00 AM
New York - Tue 12:00 Noon
London - Tue 5:00 PM
Bangalore - Tue 9:30 PM

Moderated by Laura Smoliar, CEO of Mobius Photonics

Laura Smoliar works with Astia as Entrepreneur in Residence, focusing on client evangelism.  She interviews executive teams to capture their stories for case studies, white papers, articles and other information sources.  She also works with Peppertree Engineering, providing strategic and business development counsel for high-technology companies.

Dr. Smoliar is well equipped for her role at Astia.  She became acquainted with the organization in 2005 when she was forming her own company.  While  participating in Astia’s programs and presenting at venture conferences , she launched Mobius Photonics, a company that produces commercial fiber lasers. 

As Chairman and CEO of Mobius Photonics, Laura Smoliar built a corporate team, established key customer relationships in Europe and Asia, successfully raised angel and strategic financing from the U.S. and Japan, and established a strong intellectual property (IP) position based on the company’s unique breakthrough light technology.   In July 2009, she resigned from Mobius Photonics to pursue other interests, including her new role at Astia.

Laura Smoliar’s expertise covers diverse hardware-technology companies.  Beginning her career in data storage at Seagate Technology, she later worked on MEMS-based laser displays at Silicon Light Machines (acquired by Cypress Semiconductor), and then migrated to solid-state lasers at Lightwave Electronics (acquired by JDSU).  She has extensive experience partnering with Japanese companies such as Sony, Hitachi, Disco, and Panasonic, and she has lived and worked in both Taiwan and Germany.

Laura holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where she worked with Yuan T. Lee (1986 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry) and an A.B. Summa Cum Laude from Columbia University, both in Chemistry.  She is a past member of the Council and Executive Board of the American Physical Society (http://www.aps.org).  Since 1997, she has served as a mentor with the Association of Women in Science (http://www.awis.org) Palo Alto Chapter.

Focus for this conversation: "Working in Asia"

Please submit your questions in advance to vanessa@astia.org to help us better navigate the conversation.

**Dial-In information and live virtual session instructions will be emailed to you no later than Friday September 18th.