Innovating the Future: Our Story

Our Mission

Lumotive is pioneering the era of programmable optics, where for the first time, light is controlled as intelligently and flexibly as software.

Our patented Light Control Metasurface (LCM™) transforms photonics into a digital platform, unlocking breakthroughs in sensing, optical switching, and communication. With more than 160 patents and growing commercial traction, Lumotive is delivering the world’s first digital platform for light — and redefining what’s possible in the optical age.
Awards and Recognition

GSA Awards 2025 Startup to Watch Award

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CES 2025 Innovation Awards

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Laser Focus World
2024 Innovators Awards

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CES 2024
Innovation Awards

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Fast Company
Next Big Things in Tech 2023

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CES 2022
Innovation Awards

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SPIE 2022
PRISM Award​

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Business Intelligence 2022
Excellence in AI

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Leadership Team

Sam Heidari, Ph.D.

CEO

Gleb Akselrod, Ph.D.

CTO & founder

Apurva Jain, Ph.D.

SVP of Product and
Customer Success

Axel Fuchs, Ph.D.

VP of Business Development

Rakinder Grover

SVP of FINANCE and Partnerships

Sajid Husain

VP of ASIC ENGINEERING

Clement Kong

VP of Sales

Diane Krzysik

VP of Human Resources

Larry Zhao, Ph.D.

VP of Process Engineering

Board of Directors

Conrad Burke

BOARD MEMBER

Jim Anderson

Board Member

Sam Heidari, Ph.D.

BOARD MEMBER

Gleb Akselrod, Ph.D.

BOARD MEMBER

Our Culture

Sam Heidari, Ph.D.

CEO, Board Member

Sam Heidari brings over 30 years of leadership experience across a range of technology sectors. He is currently the CEO of Lumotive and serves on the board of Morse Micro. His previous roles include CEO and Chairman of Quantenna Communications, CEO of Doradus Technologies, CTO of Ikanos, and Venture Partner at Cota Capital.

Dr. Heidari has contributed significantly to the tech industry, serving on the Global Semiconductor Alliance Board of Directors and the advisory boards for the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments at the University of Southern California.

His achievements have earned him numerous recognitions, including 2014 Executive of the Year by the Golden Bridge Awards, finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016, and 2017 Executive of the Year by UBM. A senior member of IEEE, Dr. Heidari holds more than 50 U.S. and international patents.

He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University.

Gleb Akselrod, Ph.D.

CTO, Founder, Board Member

Gleb Akselrod has more than 10 years experience in photonics and optoelectronics. Prior to Lumotive he was the Director for Optical Technologies at Intellectual Ventures in Bellevue, WA, where he led a program on the commercialization of optical metamaterial and nanophotonic technologies.

Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics at Duke University, where his work focused on plasmonic nanoantennas and metasurfaces. He completed his Ph.D. in 2013 at MIT, where he was a Hertz Foundation Fellow and an NSF Graduate Fellow studying excitons in materials for solar cells and OLEDs. Prior to MIT, Dr. Akselrod was at Landauer, Inc. where he developed and patented a fluorescent radiation sensor that is currently deployed by the US Army.

Dr. Akselrod received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and his B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds more than 30 US Patents and has published over 25 scientific articles.

Apurva Jain, Ph.D.

VP of Product and Customer Success

Apurva Jain is a recognized leader in optics, photonics, and semiconductor innovation, with over a decade of experience bringing transformative optical technologies to market. His expertise spans product strategy & innovation, manufacturing operations, and customer success, guiding products from concept through mass deployment.

Apurva has contributed to multiple patents and publications and has led cross-functional teams delivering breakthrough solutions in sensing, imaging, automation, networking, and communications. Prior to Lumotive, he held leadership roles at Avo Photonics, where he helped commercialize advanced optoelectronic products. He earned a Ph.D. in Optics from CREOL, University of Central Florida, and a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from McGill University.

Beyond technology, Apurva is the founder of CCoffee (www.ccoffee.ca), a social impact venture that invests its profits into children’s education, reflecting his commitment to creating a positive global impact.

Axel Fuchs, Ph.D.

VP of Business Development

Over the past three decades, Axel Fuchs has demonstrated a strong track record in managing key aspects of global high-tech businesses.

In 1995, Dr. Fuchs co-founded the Daimler Benz Research and Technology office. He later joined Motorola's newly established Telematics division, where he led the Systems Engineering Team. Since 2002, Dr. Fuchs has held leadership positions at several Silicon Valley startups, where he played a pivotal role in developing the automotive business and expanding the consumer segment for Simple Devices, which was acquired by Universal Electronics in 2004. He also led business development for Quanergy, growing the business from inception to $50 million.

Dr. Fuchs holds a Ph.D. in Control Engineering from Darmstadt University of Technology.

Rakinder Grover

VP of Strategy and Partnerships

Rakinder Grover is a technology executive with over 25 years of experience. His expertise is in business management, business development and venture capital investing in high-growth, innovation-led companies.

Prior to Lumotive, Mr. Grover held various management roles at Dolby Laboratories and Ikanos. As a Managing Director at Walden International, he was a venture capital investor in early-stage semiconductor and communications startups.

Mr. Grover holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Sajid Husain

VP of ASIC Engineering

Sajid Husain is a technology executive with more than 30 years of experience leading the development of complex semiconductor and system solutions across the communications, networking, storage, wireless, and photonics industries. He currently serves as Vice President of Mixed-Signal ASIC Engineering at Lumotive, where he leads the development of advanced mixed-signal ASICs enabling one-dimensional and two-dimensional beam steering technologies for next-generation 3D sensing and Optical Circuit Switching (OCS) applications for AI data centers.

Throughout his career, Sajid has successfully led multidisciplinary engineering organizations at both established semiconductor companies and high-growth startups. His expertise spans product definition, architecture, ASIC development, silicon validation, manufacturing ramp, and volume production. He has repeatedly built high-performing engineering teams from the ground up while delivering complex products from concept through commercialization.

Prior to Lumotive, Sajid led the development of Wi-Fi Access Point silicon at Quantenna Communications, contributing to industry-leading wireless networking solutions. Earlier in his career at Altera (later Intel), he played a key leadership role in the development of Stratix® 10 FPGA, one of the world's largest and most advanced programmable logic devices of its time. His broad technical background, combined with extensive leadership experience, has enabled him to successfully execute ambitious silicon development programs across multiple technology domains.

Sajid holds a Master of Technology (M.Tech.) in Electronic Design Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and a B.E in Electronics and Communication Engineering from SGSITS, Indore, India. He has also completed the Engineering Leadership Program at the UC Berkeley, with a focus on technology strategy and operational innovation.

Clement Tong

VP of Sales

Clement Kong is a business leader with more than 20 years of experience in the automotive and sensing industries. Throughout his career, he has held leadership positions at global Tier 1 automotive suppliers, including Continental, Valeo, and Johnson, where he led strategic customer acquisition and drove business growth across international markets.

Most recently, Clement served as Vice President of Sales at leading LiDAR companies, including Ouster, Aeva, and Voyant Photonics. He has a proven track record of scaling high-growth technology companies from early-stage startups to IPO, securing strategic customer partnerships, and driving commercial adoption of advanced sensing technologies

Diane Krzysik

VP of Human Resources

Diane Krzysik is a human resources executive with over 20 years of experience in all facets of human resources and business partnering. Her expertise is in Talent Acquisition, Talent Development and Nurturing a Vibrant and Inclusive Culture. She has deep experience in the following corporate life cycle changes: High-Growth, Public Transition Phase, Mergers & Acquisitions, Down Market Conditions, Restructuring, Management Changes and Market Transitions.

Prior to Lumotive, Ms. Krzysik held management roles at Atomwise and Quantenna. There she built out the HR function, scaled a global high growth start up, supported the company through an IPO and was part of the team that took them through an M&A and subsequent post acquisition transition to a Fortune 500 company. Prior to Quantenna, she held earlier director/manager positions at Arcwave, Carnegie Mellon University and TechTV.

Ms. Krzysik holds a Human Resource Management (HRM), Honors Distinction from the University of California Santa Cruz.

Larry Zhao, Ph.D.

VP of Process Engineering & Sr. Advisor to CEO

Larry Zhao, Ph.D. is an accomplished semiconductor and microelectronics professional with over 30 years of experience driving innovation in process integration and enabling new technology. Proven track record spanning major IDM, foundry, equipment vendor, R&D consortia, and fabless environments, with deep expertise leading complex technical integration from design to high-volume manufacturing.

Dr. Zhao is a recognized expert and prolific innovator in the semiconductor field. He holds more than 40 U.S. patents, has co-authored over 80 conference/journal papers and a book chapter. He served on IEEE IITC committee for nearly a decade and served as Technical Advisory Board member for Semiconductor Research Corporation.

Dr. Zhao earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from KU Leuven and conducted Ph.D. research in Materials Science at Columbia University. He received his M.S. in Engineering from Dartmouth College, and a B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Conrad Burke

Board Member

Conrad Burke is based in Silicon Valley and is managing partner at MetaVC Partners, LLC. He is an entrepreneur and investor, building successful new businesses in renewable energy, communications, nanomaterials, and biosciences. He was founder and CEO of energy materials startup, Innovalight (acquired by DuPont) and was venture partner at Sevin Rosen Funds and Invention Science Fund (ISF).

Some of his past and current board responsibilities include Capella Photonics (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent), Lumotive, Imagia, and the advisory boards of Aelurus (acquired by Broadcom), InnerAnalytics and Cendana Capital. For three years, Mr. Burke served on the board of SolarPower Europe - the European solar industry association. He was a Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum in Davos for renewable energy innovations and he is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year™ award. Conrad has extensive international experience having worked and lived in Japan, Germany, the U.K. at AT&T, NEC and Lucent Technologies.

He has a MS in Physics from Trinity College and a BS in Physics from University College Dublin in Ireland.

Jim Anderson

Board Member

Jim Anderson was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Coherent Corp. and a member of the Board of Directors on June 3, 2024. He previously served as a director and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation since September 2018.

Prior to joining Lattice, Mr. Anderson served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). Prior to AMD, Mr. Anderson held a broad range of leadership positions spanning general management, engineering, sales, marketing, and corporate strategy at companies including Intel, Broadcom (formerly Avago Technologies), and LSI Corporation. 

Mr. Anderson has served on the board of directors of Entegris, Inc., since March 2023, and he currently serves on the board of directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association. He previously served on the board of directors of Sierra Wireless from April 2020 to January 2023.

Mr. Anderson earned an MBA and Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.