Jean-Michel Pelaprat

Jean-Michel Pelaprat is a photonics industry executive with over 30 years of experience in establishing, commercialising and scaling laser and semiconductor businesses.

As co-founder and director of Nuburu, a US-based company recognised as pioneer in blue GaN lasers for industrial, medical, display and 3D applications, Mr Pelaprat spent 6 years helping the business from startup to becoming an industry leader. Mr Pelaprat remains a director and chief marketing and sales officer of Nuburu.

Before founding Nuburu, Mr Pelaprat held numerous leadership positions in photonics businesses including as president and chief executive of Vytran, a fibre optics capital equipment company supplying optical communications, fibre lasers, medical devices, sensing and aerospace applications. He led the business during the 2009-2010 recession and served on the board of its parent company NKT Photonics.

He was also chair and chief executive of Novalux, a start-up developing red-green-blue (RGB) semiconductor laser sources for the projection display industry; and director of Nuvonyx, a pioneer in infrared high-powered semiconductor lasers.

Mr Pelaprat founded A2E, a consulting and advisory firm in Silicon Valley, assisting photonics, semiconductor and tech businesses with strategic restructures, merger and acquisition management, and revenue transformation.

He has undertaken Sales Management and Finance education at the Wharton School of Business, and studied Strategic Marketing for the High-Tech Industry at Stanford University.