Velodyne Lidar Announces Executive Appointments to Advance Company’s Continued Global Lidar Market Leadership
March 08 2021 - 6:48AM
Business Wire
Sinclair Vass Named Chief Commercial
Officer
Mike Jellen Promoted to Chief Strategy
Officer
Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (Nasdaq: VLDR, VLDRW) today announced that
it has appointed Sinclair Vass as Chief Commercial Officer,
succeeding Mike Jellen. Mr. Vass joins Velodyne from Focuslight
Technologies, where he served as Corporate Senior Vice President
and was responsible for driving profitable growth as the leader of
its Laser Optics Business Unit. As Chief Commercial Officer of
Velodyne Lidar, Mr. Vass will be responsible for worldwide sales
and deepening the Company’s customer relationships.
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Sinclair Vass, Chief Commercial Officer,
Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (Photo: Velodyne Lidar, Inc.)
In conjunction with Mr. Vass’s appointment, Mr. Jellen has been
promoted to Chief Strategy Officer, where he will be responsible
for advancing Velodyne’s growth through mergers and acquisitions
and corporate development initiatives. Both Mr. Vass and Mr. Jellen
will report directly to Chief Executive Officer Dr. Anand
Gopalan.
“I am incredibly excited about the growing strength of our
leadership team as we continue innovating to meet the increased
demand for our revolutionary hardware and software solutions,” said
Dr. Gopalan. “Our diverse range of customers are using Velodyne
technologies to change the world. I have great confidence that
Sinclair and Mike will help Velodyne realize our vision to improve
lives and make the world a safer place.”
About Sinclair Vass
Sinclair Vass is a seasoned executive with extensive experience
in telecommunications, consumer electronics, automotive and
industrial laser markets. Mr. Vass currently serves as Chief
Commercial Officer at Velodyne Lidar, where he is responsible for
driving revenue growth across all the Velodyne markets and
geographies. Prior to joining Velodyne, Mr. Vass was President of
the Laser Optics Business Unit at Focuslight Technologies Inc., a
China based manufacturer of high-performance laser and optical beam
steering solutions. Before his time at Focuslight, Mr. Vass served
as Vice President of Sales, Product Management & Customer
Service at Viavi Solutions. Throughout his career, Mr. Vass has
also held increasingly senior leadership positions at JDS Uniphase,
New Focus Inc., Lucent Microelectronics, Hewlett Packard, and
Plessey Research Inc. Mr. Vass graduated with a BSc (Hons) in
Physics from the University of Edinburgh and holds an MBA from the
Open University.
About Mike Jellen
Mike Jellen is a seasoned industrial automation executive with
extensive global growth and manufacturing experience. Mr. Jellen
currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Velodyne Lidar, where
he is responsible for advancing Velodyne’s growth through M&A
and corporate development initiatives. Previously, Mr. Jellen
served as Velodyne’s Chief Commercial Officer, overseeing all daily
sales business operations, and also served as President of Velodyne
Acoustics in 2015 and founding President of Velodyne Lidar Inc.
from 2016 through 2019. Prior to joining Velodyne, Mr. Jellen
served as Vice President of Adept Technology, a leader in robotics
and vision technology. Preceding his time at Adept, Mike worked for
10 years at Danaher Corporation in successive roles of increasing
responsibility, including Vice President & General Manager,
Vehicle Systems Business in Stockholm, Sweden. Earlier positions
within Danaher included Vice President, Asia, Vice President,
Strategic Accounts and Controls and General Manager, Technology
Business. Mr. Jellen earned a BSEE in electrical engineering from
Marquette University and an MBA from Boston University,
specializing in business and engineering executive leadership in
the U.S., EU, China, Japan and Korea.
About Velodyne Lidar
Velodyne Lidar (Nasdaq: VLDR, VLDRW) ushered in a new era of
autonomous technology with the invention of real-time surround view
lidar sensors. Velodyne is the first public pure-play lidar company
and is known worldwide for its broad portfolio of breakthrough
lidar technologies. Velodyne’s revolutionary sensor and software
solutions provide flexibility, quality and performance to meet the
needs of a wide range of industries, including autonomous vehicles,
advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), robotics, unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAV), smart cities and security. Through
continuous innovation, Velodyne strives to transform lives and
communities by advancing safer mobility for all. For more
information, visit www.velodynelidar.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward looking statements" within
the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including, without
limitation, all statements other than historical fact and include,
without limitation, statements regarding Velodyne’s target markets,
new products, development efforts, competition. When used in this
press release, the words "estimates," "projected," "expects,"
"anticipates," "forecasts," "plans," "intends," "believes,"
"seeks," "may," "will," “can,” "should," "future," "propose" and
variations of these words or similar expressions (or the negative
versions of such words or expressions) are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are
not guarantees of future performance, conditions or results and
involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties,
assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside
Velodyne's control, that could cause actual results or outcomes to
differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking
statements. Important factors, among others, that may affect actual
results or outcomes include the uncertain impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on Velodyne's and its customers' businesses; Velodyne's
ability to manage growth; Velodyne's ability to execute its
business plan; uncertainties related to the ability of Velodyne's
customers to commercialize their products and the ultimate market
acceptance of these products; uncertainties related to Velodyne's
estimates of the size of the markets for its products;
uncertainties regarding government regulation and adoption of lidar
for pedestrian safety, traffic congestion and smart city
applications; the rate and degree of market acceptance of
Velodyne's products; the success of other competing lidar and
sensor-related products and services that exist or may become
available; Velodyne's ability to identify and integrate
acquisitions; uncertainties related to Velodyne's current
litigation and potential litigation involving Velodyne or the
validity or enforceability of Velodyne's intellectual property; and
general economic and market conditions impacting demand for
Velodyne's products and services. Velodyne undertakes no obligation
to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as
required by law.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210308005136/en/
Investor Relations Andrew Hamer Chief Financial Officer
InvestorRelations@velodyne.com
Media Landis Communications Inc. Sean Dowdall (415)
286-7121 velodyne@landispr.com
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