TECHNICAL TEAM

Mario Goduco is in Business Development for Fiber Optic Center. He has over 25 years in manufacturing, operations and business development with AMP, Thomas and Betts, Aster Corp., and Adirondack Wire and Cable design, manufacturing and sales of fiber optic connectors, fiber optic cable assemblies, optical splitters/wdms. In the last 15+ years with Fiber Optic Center, he has set up and/or optimized manufacturing facilities for fiber assemblies at over 100 companies worldwide.

In a previous position as VP-Operations for US Fiber Optics, he created and managed assembly manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Mexico and China. He has written 4 papers on the processing of singlemode connectors and remains one of the pioneers in manufacturing low return loss connections. He has worked with fiber assembly operations in Asia, Australia, Europe, India and Africa.

Mr. Goduco continues to provide technical consultation in the setup, staffing, operations and qualification of fiber optic assembly manufacturing all over the world.

Dan has worked in fiber optic cable assembly since 1986, starting as a part-time line operator for a local cable production company and working his way up through to management positions in large global companies. His experience includes positions in process training, supervision, product and process engineering, quality system development and management, factory general management, global factory startups, and global project management roles. He has held several overseas positions, opening and managing factories in Mexico, India, China, and Czech Republic. He has led global project efforts in sourcing / supplier auditing, global process standardization, and global operations strategic planning.

Dan’s extensive experience gives him a unique ability to relate to help FOC’s customers meet challenges, adapt and grow in the evolving and competitive fiber cable assembly market.

Kelly Barker started her career in customer service, marketing and sales. Since then, she has been promoted to management positions in these departments, project management director, and new business development with a specialty in product line marketing strategy.

Kelly joined Fiber Optic Center, Inc. from PennWell Corporation where she spent more than five years in business development within various industries including Fiber Optics, Cabling, Connector, LED, Military and Aerospace. She has worked extensively with adhesive manufacturers on their product lines and applications within these markets.

Kelly graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in 1997 with a BS degree in Marketing and Management and a minor in Legal Studies. She resides in Nashua, NH with her husband and two girls, Maizie and Audrey. She enjoys being involved in community activities, such as park and recreation sports with her girls, and enjoys camping and reading.

Larry Donalds began his career at Fiber Optic Center (FOC) in 2017 as Business Development, Fiber Design and Manufacturing, Technical Sales. Larry brings more than 35 years of experience from 3M Company in St. Paul, MN after recently retiring.

During his time with 3M Company, he spent 24 years in the development and manufacture of specialty optical fiber, utilizing “voice of the customer,” helping 3M design and produce fibers to meet specific customer applications and performance criteria. . Projects included the development and production of EDFA (Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier) fiber, radiation-hardened fiber for gyroscopes, solution doping of preforms, patent development for Oxyfluoride Erbium fiber, organometallic rare earth deposition and a rare earth single mode fiber bend and position sensor.

In his fiber position at 3M, Mr. Donalds maintained and operated MCVD equipment from SG Controls of Cambridge, England, whom FOC has represented in North America for over 25 years.
Larry has achieved several awards over his career including 3M Golden Step Award, Photonics Circle of Excellence Award, R&D 100 Award, 3M Circle of Technical Excellence Awards in 1983, 2001, and 2008, & 3M Ideation Challenge award in 2017.

He and his wife reside in Arizona. Outside of FOC, Larry’s hobbies includes fishing, boating, snowmobiling, outdoor landscaping, & deck design and construction.

Richard Tumminelli began his career at Fiber Optic Center (FOC) in 2020 as Fiber Design and Manufacturing Consultant, Rare Earth Doped Optical Fiber Expert. Rick recently retired from the position of Director of Engineering at the Coherent fiber site in Salem, NH, and has been working in the field of rare earth doped optical fiber for 40 years. Prior to this position, he managed the specialty fiber group at JDS Uniphase, specializing in double clad fibers for fiber lasers and erbium doped fiber. Richard also held positions in the optics group at Draper Laboratories, and was a member of the Polaroid fiber optic team under the direction of Dr. Elias Snitzer, which did much of the seminal work in rare earth doped fibers, fiber lasers and amplifiers. He is a co-inventor of double clad fiber laser pumping, has been granted 22 patents and has 20 publications in fiber lasers and amplifiers.

Wayne Kachmar has been in the optical cable industry for over 37 years.  He has participated in many innovations and seen the maturing of the industry. Over the years, Wayne has been involved in many unique projects to provide optical cable in diverse environments such as the underwater ROV that penetrated the Titanic, as well as cable that is in service sensing sub-atomic particles in the Antarctic ice. Wayne developed a number of unique concepts and products using optical fibers as both information carriers and sensors where the cable became the sensor. These have included fiber laser ring gyroscope components and distributed acoustic sensors for terrestrial and underwater applications. As a principal investigator for many government sponsored projects, he has developed methods that push the state of the art in optical cable design and manufacture. Over his career, Wayne has been able to fuse this state of the art knowledge with conventional fiber cable design to significantly cost reduce both materials and processes.

With over 50 granted patents in fiber optic cables, connectors and tools and over 60 patents published or in process, Wayne’s path to TE Connectivity started when he founded and ran Northern Lights Cable, Inc. in 1988.   He sold the company to Prestolite Wire in late 1997 continuing as division CEO until 2000. In 2000, Prestolite Wire was packaged with other holdings of the owner to become GenTek (a publicly held company), which also acquired Krone that year. Wayne’s position transitioned to Director of R&D, managing the RD&E center. In 2004, all Krone divisions were acquired by ADC who itself was acquired by TE in December 2010.

In 2012, Wayne was named a TE Fellow in electro-optic engineering based on the length and depth of his technical knowledge and accomplishments. This is the highest technical title within the TE structure with less than 20 persons worldwide out of 8000 scientists and engineers within TE.

In 2015, Wayne incorporated his consulting company Technical Horsepower Consulting, LLC. and joined Fiber Optic Center, Inc. as their Optical Cable Technical Expert.

Erwin Gelderblom manages sales and technical support for FOC in the EMEA area. Earlier positions included Toshiba Medical Systems, Framatome, and Amphenol. Erwin joined Molex Fiber Optics in 1997 as European account manager, developing business for optical backplane connectors and optical flex circuit products to become the largest sales area for Molex. Erwin completed a four-year internal MBA program while at Molex, and was responsible for market analyses, growth strategy and business development for Molex Europe.

Following ten years at Molex, Erwin worked for Prysmian Cables in the Netherlands. Since 2009, Erwin has worked with FOC, handling consumables, production and inspection equipment.
Erwin graduated in 1987 from MBO college in Gouda, Netherlands with degree in electronics engineering and lives in the Rotterdam area with his wife Anita and their three children, Nils, Lianne and Finette.

Giorgio Bonvini, based in EUROPE, manages sales and technical support for FOC in EMEA region.  Earlier positions include AEG Telefunken, TELEMECANIQUE, and AMP.  Giorgio joined Molex, in 1987, as Telecom specialist developing business in this market for copper and optical connector, selling standard products and collaborating with different factories to develop custom solutions.  He transitioned to sales manager for telecom and industrial market coordinating a team of sales  engineers.  Additionally, he completed internal MBA program with focus on finance, marketing, operation and HR .  After an 18 year career at Molex, Giorgio moved to ITT Cannon for 8 years as South Europe Sales Manager.  Those responsibilities included managing a sales team for military, industrial and railway markets and developing projects for copper and fiber optic application. From ITT Cannon, Giorgio began collaboration with FOC . Giorgio is based in Italy travelling across EU continent visiting customers located in specific countries .

Marcel Buijs manages sales and technical support for FOC in the EMEA area.

With over twenty five years in the photonics industry, Mr. Buijs’ credentials include founding the first Photonics Department at a Technical College in The Netherlands, with three fellow teachers, and developing curriculum for the subjects of Opto-Electronics, Fiber Optics and Machine Vision.  For more than 17 years, his specific role in research and development for a global fiber optic connector company, was developing processes for making fiber optic products and a broad process portfolio. His specific department was responsible for several important developments in both the single-fiber and multi-fiber optic connector markets. Areas of expertise include laser cleaving, polishing and measurement processes and proven yield and product performance improvements.  Marcel’s process, analytical and statistical knowledge gives him the ultimate tools to help every FOC customer meeting their specifications in making the ultimate fiber optic product and improve process yield.

Marcel has a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from Saxion University.  He and his wife Ellen live in the center of the Netherlands near Holland’s largest national park “de hoge Veluwe” with their three children.