How AI is driving new thinking in the optical industry

Michael P. O'Day | Senior Vice President & General Manager, Optical Communications

Michael O’Day was appointed Senior Vice President and General Manager, Optical Communications, in September 2024. In this role, O’Day has end-to-end responsibilities for the Optical Communications Market-Access Platform, including Optical Fiber and Cable (OFC), Optical Connectivity Solutions (OCS), and Optical Commercial Operations (OCO). Prior to his current role, O’Day served as Vice President of Corning Optical Communications (COC) Technology and Program Management Office, leading the disruptive innovations programs and the subsequent adoption of those innovations by customers in support of COC’s growth strategy.

Todd Haugen | CEO | Enablence

Todd Haugen is CEO of Enablence Technologies, a leading provider of photonics semiconductors based on Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) technology for datacom and telecom applications as well as LiDAR technology-based products for automotive and robotics. Prior to joining Enablence, Haugen held senior management positions at Microsoft Corporation. He was GM at Skype Wi-Fi where he helped grow this business unit to more than 2.5 million hotspots and 1 million customers. He also served as Group Engineering Head of Privacy, Group Manager at Ohana, SharePoint and Vista. At Vista, Haugen helped reinvent the software licensing model from a rudimentary anti-piracy system to digital licensing model, enabling Windows Anytime Upgrade, which in turn helped generate more than $1 billion in revenue for Microsoft. 

Before joining Microsoft, he advised several technology start-ups in the greater Seattle area, including one project, where he launched one of the first ecommerce platforms enabling companies like Disney, Nike, Ziff-Davis, and NFL to launch their ecommerce businesses. Prior to this, he held leadership positions at Accenture, Q-Strategies, where he served as CEO, and Aventail where he served as vice president of engineering. Haugen earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Colorado and a Master of Science in computer science from the University of Washington.

Walid Wakim | Chief Technology Officer – Systems and Network Solutions |Infinera

Walid Wakim is Chief Technology Officer at Infinera in the Systems group. Walid’s 25+ years of industry experience has spanned hardware to software to system engineering to defining both optical and multi-layer network architectures. In his current role, Walid heads the office of the CTO, focusing on future system and network architectures. He actively collaborates with network operators and vendors all around the world to create next-generation networking solutions and is actively involved with standards and open source forums. Walid also is a regular speaker at industry conferences, holds a number of patents, and has authored a number of papers in the International Engineering Consortium, IEEE, and OFC as well as for other major journals and industry conferences.

Tom Fawcett | Senior Vice President and General Manager | Lab and Production Business Unit at VIAVI

Tom Fawcett is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Lab and Production Business Unit at VIAVI Solutions. He brings over 30 years of experience in the optical communications and telecom sectors. He joined JDSU in 2006 as part of the Optical Communications Group, where he held leadership positions in business unit management, product management, and business development. Prior to joining JDSU, Mr. Fawcett held senior roles at Avago (Agilent Technologies) and Tyco Electronics (AMP Incorporated) across multiple functions, including R&D, manufacturing engineering, and product line management. Mr. Fawcett holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.

Sean Buckley
Editor-in-Chief
LIGHTWAVE