Bridgelux’s management team features an impressive roster of seasoned individuals with years-upon-years of combined experience in the LED, IC, compound semiconductor and materials, lighting and consumer electronics sectors. Sharing a common desire for taking the company’s mission of accelerating the evolution of lighting to new levels, these leaders have built an organization and culture that embraces innovation and strives for superior quality. At Bridgelux’s helm:


Mark Swoboda, Chief Executive Officer
Mark Swoboda joined Bridgelux as CEO in June 2007 and is the former executive vice president of Philips Lumileds. He led the sales, marketing, applications and custom product development teams at the corporate spin-off and joint venture between Hewlett-Packard/Agilent and Royal Philips Electronics. The company pioneered the power LED product class and Luxeon brand to develop high-growth markets and applications in solid-state lighting including automotive forward lighting, mobile phone camera flash, LED backlighting, and general lighting. Prior to joining Philips Lumileds, Swoboda spent 17 years with the Hewlett-Packard Semiconductor Products Group in various sales, marketing, and channel management positions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Marquette University.


Dr. Heng Liu, Chief Technology Officer & Founder
Dr. Heng Liu founded Bridgelux in December 2002 and served as CEO for the first 2.5 years. He leads the company’s technology team and sets the direction for its R&D and engineering efforts. Liu received his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in 1991, and developed Emcore’s first GaN MOCVD reactor in 1994. With that reactor, he pioneered Hewlett-Packard’s GaN blue LED development and succeeded in creating several generations of products that contributed to the foundation of what became Lumileds (an Agilent and Philips joint venture now owned by Philips). Liu later led AXT’s LED operation as chief technology officer, where his team developed high-performance and high-reliability green and blue InGaN chips, utilizing his MOCVD expertise.

Gloria Fan, Chief Financial Officer
Gloria Fan joined Bridgelux as CFO in June 2006. She brings with her more than 16 years of experience in providing financial, operational and business leadership to high-technology companies. Her expertise includes strategic planning, process improvement, international finance, business operations and system integration. Prior to joining Bridgelux, Fan worked at UTStarcom as vice president of global business operations and vice president of finance. During her tenure, the company completed its initial public offering (IPO) and grew its annual revenues from $186 million to $2.8 billion. Before that, Fan spent five years in various senior finance positions with P-Com, during which time the company completed its IPO and grew revenues from $4 million to over $300 million a year. Fan holds master’s degrees in accounting and business administration from Purdue University and San Jose State University, respectively.


Dr. Steve Lester, Director of R&D
Dr. Steve Lester joined Bridgelux in 2005, and currently leads the device R&D group at Bridgelux, where he and his team are building a pipeline of industry-leading chip technologies for both near- and long-term product releases. Prior to that, he worked for the central research laboratories of HP (later called Agilent Technologies), where he designed and fabricated the world’s first high-power InGaN LEDs. Lester pioneered light extraction techniques such as surface and substrate texturing, and developed the first high-power flip-chip InGaN LEDs, which were successfully commercialized by Philips Lumileds. Lester joined the Optoelectronics Division of Hewlett-Packard in 1987. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin.

Mike Peanasky, Vice President of Manufacturing
Mike Peanasky leads the global engineering and manufacturing operations at Bridgelux, bringing more than 20 years of engineering and manufacturing management in the optoelectronics industry to his role. Prior to joining Bridgelux in 2007, he served as a III-V manufacturing manager at Avago Technologies’ fiber optics division—a spin-off of Agilent Technologies’ semiconductor products division—where he notably led the manufacturing transfer from the U.S. to Singapore resulting in significant cost reductions. Before that, he spent more than 15 years with Hewlett-Packard’s optoelectronics division—today known as Philips Lumileds. He served as an engineering manufacturing manager with Lumileds through 2000. He began his career with HP as an R&D engineer in 1985. Peanasky received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and a doctorate in the same field from the University of Illinois.