Capella Photonics Appoints New CEO

Capella Photonics, a start-up offering wavelength selective switch (WSS) modules for use in reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) and optical cross connect (OXC) applications, named Larry Schwerin as President and CEO. He replaces co-founder and current CEO Dr. Joseph Davis, who announced his plan last September to retire as CEO at the end of 2004. The handoff of responsibilities was timed to coincide with Capella's transition from development to commercialization of the WavePath products.


Schwerin previously served as General Partner at Vanguard Ventures, where he sat on the Board of Directors at Capella Photonics. During his tenure at Vanguard Ventures, Schwerin was President and CEO of CenCom V, a Vanguard-sponsored business accelerator focused on the telecommunications market. Prior to joining Vanguard Ventures, Schwerin was founder and General Manager of Lucent Technologies' Wireless Broadband Networks Division, responsible for developing a market leadership position for wireless broadband services around the world. Schwerin spent twelve years at Bell Laboratories where he was Director of AT&T's Global Fiber Access Systems.