Phononic focuses on opto industry by hiring industry veteran Granucci as VP of sales

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25 January 2018

Phononic focuses on opto industry by hiring industry veteran Granucci as VP of sales

Phononic of Durham, NC, USA (which provides solid-state thermoelectric cooling solutions) has strengthened its investment in the optoelectronics market by appointing Kevin Granucci as general manager & VP of sales for its optoelectronics vertical, focused on accelerating penetration into the growing opto market and driving the global adoption of Phononic’s application-specific thermoelectric solutions. Granucci will be based in San Jose, CA, and will help to expand Phononic’s presence in Silicon Valley, as well as lead its already-established team in the Asia-Pacific region.

“The optoelectronics market holds so much world-changing possibility, with 5G networks guaranteed to transform everything from driverless cars to virtual and augmented reality technologies,” says CEO & founder Tony Atti. Granucci “shares our vision for revolutionizing this industry through our differentiated thermoelectric modules, which will be vital to cooling the sophisticated optical components that transmit the data needed to make all these innovative applications a reality,” he adds.

Granucci began his semiconductor career with Hitachi, before moving to its opto-device division spin out Opnext Inc, where he drove and managed North American sales of optical modules, components and subsystems. Following Opnext’s merger with optical communications and laser provider Oclaro in 2012, Granucci led Oclaro’s client-side module strategy and marketing team while stationed in Japan, building critical new relationships with customers in China and Europe while improving gross margins and profitability for the business unit to record levels.

In his more than two decades in the industry, Granucci has worked closely with many of the major companies defining the optoelectronics roadmap, such as Cisco, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE as well as today’s biggest data-center and telecoms players, providing a network and understanding of the global marketplace that Phononic reckons will enable it to continue to increase market share in the cooling sector.

“Technological advancements in optoelectronics are gaining traction, with next-generation solutions like wireless 5G front-haul systems, 10G-PON and remote PHY poised for widespread market adoption in coming years,” comments Vladimir Kozlov, founder & CEO of optical communications market research company LightCounting. “But the increase in data communication rates and bandwidth also presents a significant challenge, with effective cooling of optical components becoming increasingly critical,” he adds.

“It was a bittersweet decision to pursue a new venture after 20 years with such an established industry leader like Oclaro, but I saw the tremendous growth rate and the potential of Phononic to become a household name in thermoelectric cooling,” says Granucci. “Phononic’s materials, manufacturing processes, and modules deliver significantly lower power consumption, increased heat pumping density, and consistent quality,” he believes. “Phononic’s team combines deep expertise and passion, bringing application-specific insight and innovation to every project. These qualities, along with the need for devices that pack more sophisticated cooling capabilities into far smaller form factors, are becoming increasingly critical as the industry continues to evolve.”

Phononic will exhibit in booth #5831 at the Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC) in San Diego, CA, USA (11-15 March).

Tags: Optical communications

Visit: www.ofcconference.org/

Visit: www.phononic.com/optoelectronics