About LaSAR Alliance
The LaSAR Alliance was established to create an ecosystem of like-minded companies and organizations to foster and encourage the development and promotion of technologies, components, devices, techniques and solutions to enable the efficient design and manufacture of augmented reality wearable devices including smart glasses and head-mounted displays. The goal is to provide an environment to facilitate a marketplace for ideas where members can exchange and share information, collaborate and partner to create, build and grow effective and compelling LBS (Laser Beam Scanning) based solutions, share best practices and to help drive the growth of the market for augmented reality wearables in general.
Board of Directors
Bharath Rajagopalan
Director of Strategic Marketing, STMicroelectronics
Bharath Rajagopalan is Director of Strategic Marketing at STMicroelectronics, responsible for developing the company’s strategy for Augmented Reality leveraging ST’s broad technology and product portfolio. Bharath is a veteran of the electronics industry, having served in technical, managerial, and executive roles in research and development, manufacturing, product development, and marketing. Bharath is also serving as the inaugural Chair of the LaSAR Alliance for which he was instrumental in conceiving, creating and implementing.
Prior to ST, he has held a number of leadership positions including roles at MicroVision, Dolby Laboratories, Texas Instruments and IBM in semiconductor technology development and manufacturing, display technology development and imaging systems. Bharath holds MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering and an MBA.
Karl Leahy
Near to Eye Projection for Visible Lasers, Osram Opto Semiconductors, Inc
Karl Leahy received his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the John Moors University, Liverpool, England. After working in England for a time he settled in Silicon Valley and started working for Osram Opto Semiconductors (then Siemens Opto Division) in Cupertino, California in 1997. Initially working on consumer devices he then moved onto sensors for the automotive market. Since 2018 Karl is focusing on the marketing development, optimization and rollout of light sources (emphasis on RGB laser diodes) for augmented reality display applications.
Dr. Jussi Rahomäki
CEO & President, Dispelix USA Inc.
Dr. Jussi Rahomäki is CEO & President of Dispelix USA Inc., the US subsidiary of Finland based Dispelix Ltd. focused on see-through displays for augmented reality. Dr. Rahomäki is an experienced professional in diffractive and nanoscale optics, pursuing technology and business initiatives at the forefront of augmented reality industry. He has built his strong expertise in augmented reality and nanoscale optics technologies at various business and academic positions over the last decade. Dr. Rahomäki received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Eastern Finland. He holds 14 Publications and 7 Patents. In his free time, Dr. Rahomäki spends time with his wife and daughter, and is an avid mountain climber and paraglider.
Makoto Masuda
COO, Mega One
Makoto Masuda joined Megaone in 2019. Makoto Masuda graduated from Okayama University in department of Engineering . He worked for major Japanese companies such as Panasonic, Canon and Sharp. He has extensive experiences in mass production, from design the optical products such as laser copiers to production equipment and manufacturing quality control. He also engaged in the development of robot technology which utilized AI and IoT applications. In recent years, he concentrated on developing AR technology using lasers and holds many patents related to the technology. He wants to collaborate with more AR index companies globally to develop ECO system and aim to the AR market booming .
Pekka Laiho
Chief Business Officer, Optofidelity
As the Chief Business Officer of OptoFidelity, worlds leading AR/VR optical metrology solutions provider, Pekka Laiho is responsible of the company’s all revenue generating operations and business development. Pekka holds MS degree in automation engineering from Tampere University of Technology. For the past ten years, by living in China he has had the privilege to participate and contribute to regions high-tech and manufacturing industries development on the spot.
After joining OptoFidelity in 2014 and ramping up its China operations, Pekka has been intensively working in the field of consumer electronics manufacturing and hardware test automation. As a father and husband, Pekka spends his free time with his family, playing ice hockey and grappling.
Dr. Xavier Lafosse
Commercial Technology Director, Advanced Optics / Specialty Materials, Corning Precision Glass Solutions
Lafosse graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Paris and received a doctorate in material physics from Paris University, France.
Lafosse joined Corning in 1995 as a scientist for polymer research and development at the Corning European Technology Center in France. He held several positions in R&D supporting various Corning businesses.
In 2007, he relocated with his family to Corning, NY and was appointed business technology director for Specialty Materials. In this position, he established critical technical capabilities in support of Corning® Gorilla® Glass business growth, and he contributed to several new product introductions.
In 2019, he was appointed commercial technology director, Advanced Optics and Precision Glass Solutions. In this role, he works with customers and industry leaders to identify new trends and opportunities and drive the technology road mapping process.