LEADERSHIP
Walter Alessandrini
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Walter has a distinguished career as an entrepreneur and corporate executive having provided the leadership for a number of successful technologies multi-national corporations and startup ventures.
Prior to joining Ometric Corporation, Walter was chairman and CEO of Avanex Corporation, a photonics company in Silicon Valley he joined in 1999 and led through a highly successful transition from a startup to an industry-leading public company in less than a year.
Before joining Avanex, Walter was president and CEO of Pirelli Cables and Systems North America, a leader in photonic systems, fiberoptics, and cables for telecommunications and power.
Prior to joining Pirelli, Walter was president and CEO of Union Switch & Signal Inc., a leading supplier of signaling, automation, and control equipment and systems to railroads and mass transit worldwide. His tenure at Union Switch included a successful IPO in 1993.
Walter began his career as a marketing engineer with Varian in Turin. In 1980, he transferred to the U.S. to work in Palo Alto, CA, as a marketing manager with Varian. He has covered positions with increasing responsibilities in marketing and general management, first with Varian from 1973 to 1984, and then as president of Gryphon Products (Hayward, Calif.).
Walter was born in Chiavari, Italy. In 1972, he received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Genoa.
In 1994, Ernst & Young Inc. Magazine/Merrill Lynch named Walter South Carolina Entrepreneur of the Year in recognition of his leadership of Union Switch & Signal.
Walter's commitment to community progress through business growth led to his designation as South Carolina Ambassador of Economic Development in 1995 and Columbia International Business Person of the Year in 1997.
Dr. Robert P. Freese
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Before joining Ometric Corporation, Dr. Freese was co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Bright View Technologies, a venture capital-backed, consumer-product company that developed the world's first totally glare-free display screen for large TV, monitor, and industrial display applications. From inception, Dr. Freese led the company through strategic development and to major financing round.
Prior to the inception of Bright View, Dr. Freese was the co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Acclivity, a software development product company specializing in business critical mobile, Internet, e-business commerce, and database intensive applications.
Before Acclivity, Dr. Freese was the co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Alphatronix, a venture capital-backed, software storage-management enterprise. He oversaw the development of the world's first suite of software storage-management products for the business critical client-server marketplace. The company was sold while preparing for an initial public offering.
Prior to Alphatronix, Dr. Freese founded a new optical storage business at 3M, and managed the activity at four national and international sites. This group developed and patented erasable optical disks. Dr. Freese was responsible for all aspects of the P&L business unit, including research and development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and strategic relationships.
Dr. Freese received a doctorate in optical engineering from the University of Rochester, New York, and a bachelor's degree from Kalamazoo College, Michigan.
Dr. Freese is presently the chairman of TIG III, and an active executive committee member of TIG III and TIG IV, two North Carolina venture capital funds specializing in early stage high technology companies.
Dr. Freese has been named Entrepreneur of the Year, and his organizations have won several national business awards. These include the U.S. National Blue Chip Enterprise Quality Award, INC National Employers of the Year: Best Companies to Work For and INC. 500 Fastest Growing Companies in the U.S. One of his companies was featured as a case study in Stephen George's book Total Quality Management: Strategies and Techniques Proven at Today's Most Successful Companies.
Early in his career, Dr. Freese was named U.S. Distinguished Inventor of the Year for the invention of erasable optical disks, now sold worldwide as CD-RW and DVD-RW's.
Jason Williamson
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Prior to the inception of Ometric Corporation, Jason was the vice president of community development for the non-profit South Carolina Technology Alliance. He managed a statewide network of South Carolina technology entrepreneurs and worked on their behalf as a technology issues liaison to the SC General Assembly. He worked with South Carolina-based technology entrepreneurs to develop actionable business plans and marketing strategies.
Before working for the S.C. Technology Alliance, Jason was the president of Industrial Web Machines. There, he worked with NCR Corporation to secure seed funding, develop market potential and implement a strategic marketing plan. He currently serves on the board of directors of Industrial Web Machines.
Prior to working for Industrial Web Machines, He was president and chief executive officer of Conterra Communications. Jason implemented a turnaround strategy to stabilize declining revenues and eventually positioned the company for sale.
Before joining Conterra, He worked as founder and webmaster of Goldenpath, Inc. Prior to that, he was a research analyst at Techspan/Pierce Inc.
Jason co-founded the Columbia High-Tech Entrepreneur Council in 1998. In 2005, he was named to The State newspaper's "20 under 40" list of rising Midlands-area business stars. He is a member of the University of South Carolina's College of Engineering Industrial Advisory Board, an advisor to the Technology Steering Committee at Midlands Technical College and a former member of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce's Information Technology Council. He received an award for outstanding service to the Taking IT to the Schools program. He is a founding member of the Columbia Regional Sports Council.
Jason earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Michael Myrick
Chief Scientist
Dr. Myrick is a professor of chemistry at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. He served as an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of South Carolina from 1991 to 1998.
Dr. Myrick has served as a participating guest, staff scientist and post-doctoral associate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., as well as a visiting professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Dr. Myrick and his research group at the University of South Carolina developed the process of Multivariate Optical Computing™. In 2001, Dr. Myrick and his group demonstrated a new concept in chemical measurement based on optical spectroscopy and performed with specially designed interference filters, called multivariate optical elements (MOEs). MOEs function as optical beam-splitters. The difference in the measured intensities of the beams of light that are transmitted from and reflected by the MOE can serve as a chemical measurement in a complex sample.
Dr. Myrick's group designs, constructs and tests MOEs and continues to develop new theories and applications for them. Ometric SpectrInline Processware™ is the first commercial application of Multivariate Optical Computing™.
Dr. Myrick earned a doctorate of physical chemistry from New Mexico State University at Las Cruces, and a bachelor's degree in chemistry from North Carolina State University.
In 1992, Dr. Myrick received the Army Young Investigator Award. He was named Outstanding Honors College Professor in the Sciences at the University of South Carolina in 1994. In 1999, he received the Imaging Solution of the Year Award from Advanced Imaging Magazine.
Shawn Gallagher
Sales Director
Before he joined Ometric Corporation, Shawn was a regional sales manager for Fette America, Inc, a leader in pharmaceutical technology and the world's largest manufacturer of tableting presses.
As manager of five sales territories, he was Fette America's 2005 top sales producer in North America. Fette America designated Shawn as its containment technology expert for the North America sales team. He was responsible for educating sales personnel and customers on the use of containment technology. While at Fette America, Shawn consistently exceeded sales quotas for three consecutive years in new machine sales, spare parts sales, reconditioned equipment sales and sales of service.
Prior to becoming a regional sales manager at Fette America, Shawn worked as a sales assistant and sales projects facilitator for Fette America, Inc. He was responsible for generating project status updates, coordinating research to acquire new markets and accounts, managing tradeshow participation and working with a sales team to develop forecasting and project status reports.
Shawn received a bachelor's degree in biology from Rutgers University. As an undergraduate student, Shawn gained experience during a lengthy internship with Lewis Gace Bozell Heathcare Worldwide. In addition, Shawn completed a postgraduate course in pharmaceutical research at the University of Tennessee.
Shawn has received professional development training from Pharmaceutical Production TechSource®, Dale Carnegie® Training and Karass Effective Negotiating® Program.
Lou Kopsa
Vice President of Business Operations
Prior to joining Ometric, Lou held the position of Senior Consultant to the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pirelli, North America.
His career spans over forty years and has included senior level management positions with Wabco, American Standard Inc., Ansaldo (a large Italian conglomerate), and both Pirelli Cables and Systems and Pirelli North America.
Lou is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a Master of Business Administration Degree through the universities Executive MBA Program.
