30 June 2015

AXT appoints former Emcore president & CEO as chief operating officer

AXT Inc of Fremont, CA, USA, which makes gallium arsenide, indium phosphide and germanium substrates and raw materials, has appointed Dr Hong Q. Hou as chief operating officer, responsible for global operations (reporting to CEO Dr Morris Young).

Among his extensive technical and executive-level experience in the compound semiconductor industry, Hou served as director, president & CEO of Emcore Corp from March 2008 to January 2015. He co-founded Emcore's photovoltaics division in 1998, and led the commercialization of high-efficiency multi-junction solar cell technology for space power applications. From 2000 to 2006, he was VP & general manager of its fiber-optics device and broadband business units respectively, growing annual revenue significantly in both divisions and delivering positive financial performance. Hou was promoted to director and chief operating officer in December 2006, and subsequently president & CEO in March 2008, where he managed Emcore any through several major business challenges and adverse market conditions, and formulated and executed the firm's strategic plans. From this January to June, Hou was a venture partner at ARCH Venture Partners.

"Hong brings a wealth of technical and business experience at a time when our market is evolving and we are increasingly serving a number of new product applications in the fiber-optics, solar and communications markets," says Young. "Hong has a demonstrated record of success in managing through significant transitions and has the vision and skills to help AXT maximize the tremendous opportunity we see in the coming years," he adds.

Hou holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and has also completed executive management courses at Stanford Business School. He conducted research at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Sandia National Laboratories early in his career, and has published more than 200 journal articles and holds eight US patents.

Tags: AXT GaAs GaAs substrate InP Germanium

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