Dr. André Richter is an expert with 20+ years of experience in the field of optical communications and photonics. He received his M.Sc. degree from Georgia Tech, USA in 1995 and Ph.D. from TU Berlin, Germany in 2002. André co-authored 120+ publications, co-supervised 5 PhD students from partnering universities and led contributions to 15+ European and national research and training projects. Being with the VPIphotonics team since 1997, André generated numerous novelties in industry research and education, commercialization and market development. He held management positions with responsibilities for industrial R&D, technical services, product management before being appointed as General Manager in 2013..