Management
Patrick T. Petruno, Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Petruno received his BSEE and MSEE degrees in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1976 and 1978 respectively. He has 30 years experience in the electronic and opto-electronic industry, developing new businesses utilizing opto-electronic technologies. In 2004, within Agilent Technologies’ Semiconductor Products Group, Mr. Petruno developed the concepts to form a business initiative developing and marketing highly sensitive, inexpensive, handheld optical based instrumentation for medical diagnostic applications. In 2005, the newly formed business initiative was divested along with the Semiconductor Products Group to form Avago Technologies, where the business became an independent operation, Rapid Diagnostics. In 2007, he led a successful spinout of Rapid Diagnostics to form Alverix, Inc. Mr. Petruno’s extensive track record for developing new businesses includes high speed digital transmission systems, digital cellular radio modulation, GaAs IC’s, IRDA physical layer, Fiber Optic Transceivers, and Silicon ASIC’s. Collectively these new businesses have resulted in over $1B in new revenue for Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies.
Tong Xie, Chief Technology Officer and VP Research and Development
Dr. Xie received his Ph.D. degree in optical sciences from the University of Arizona. He has over ten years experience in R&D and technology management. Dr. Xie was a R&D Section manager at Avago Technologies and held various technical and management positions in Eastman Kodak, Kaiser Electronics and Agilent Technologies. His expertise and experiences span consumer electronics, high speed communication systems, and test and measurement technologies. Dr. Xie holds more than 30 patents and patent applications, including the invention of the Laser Mouse.
Bill Bilobran, VP Quality and Regulatory Affairs
Mr. Bilobran has a Masters degree in Physics from Kent State University. He has 30 years of experience with Hewlett Packard Company, Agilent Technologies, and Avago Technologies, including roles as Software Engineer, Product Engineer, R&D Product Engineer and 2 years as Applications & Product Engineering Manager stationed in Penang, Malaysia. Mr. Bilobran has completed 160 hours of Six Sigma Black Belt Quality training by Motorola University and 100 hours of FDA cGMP training through American Society for Quality. Mr. Bilobran has a wide range of product experience including managing the Agilent Technologies Product Engineering department associated with the introduction of Optical Mouse Navigation Products.
Pin Chai Chen, VP Manufacturing and General Manager of Alverix Malaysia
Mr. Chen graduated from University of Alberta, AB, Canada with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He currently resides in Penang, Malaysia, site of Alverix’s manufacturing operation. Mr. Chen is responsible for manufacturing, test, contract manufacturer management and order fulfillment. Mr. Chen has a total of 16 years manufacturing experience, including 10 years in Operations Management supporting high volume product shipments ranging from Flash Memory IC’s, Hard Disk Drives and various optoelectronics products such as Optical Transceivers, Navigation Sensors and Camera Modules.