AUGUST 24, 2006 By Stephen Hardy, editorial director -- The announcement August 9 that Josef Straus, former CEO and co-chairman of JDSU (search for JDSU), has become a strategic advisor at Enablence Technologies Inc. (search for Enablence) represents only a portion of his investment in the company. The president and CEO of the triplexer and diplexer developer says that Straus also participated in the company's most recent funding round.
Arvind Chhatbar told Lightwave last week that Straus had expressed interest in the company for some time. At one point, Straus discussed what Chhatbar described as "a larger role" in the company. Concerned about the implications of such a role and given the positive market response in the run up to Enablence's recently announced $11.3 million (Cdn) second round of funding, the company agreed to a smaller financial investment from Straus, plus the advisory role. Chhatbar did not reveal how much money Straus contributed to the round.
Ask about the topics on which Straus would be asked to advise, Chhatbar said that the early stages of the development of JDS Fitel (the company Straus co-founded in 1981 that merged with Uniphase to form JDSU in 1999) mirror the current position of Enablence Technologies, which is now moving from concept and prototyping to production. Chhatbar expects that Straus will help guide the company on such matters as building relationships with contract manufacturers and deciding when to bring new products online. He also expects Straus's industry contacts will prove useful as the company expands.
Chhatbar, Ashok Balakrishnan, Serge Bidnyk, and Matt Pearson founded Enablence two years ago. The company uses planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology to create triplexers and diplexers for the FTTH market. While other companies also use PLCs to make such devices, Enablence has managed to integrate a gratings-based filter function into the waveguide through what it calls its Dispersion Bridge technology, which means it doesn't have to attach a thin-film filter to the PLC platform. The company is working with two contract manufacturers, the first of which should be engaged by this November.
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