613-686-6770 info@elphic.com

Company

Management Team

Joe Costello

Joe Costello

Chairman

From the 1987 through the 1998, Joe Costello led Cadence Design Systems to be the number one company in the Electronic Design Automation market (software for designing chips), taking the company from $10M in revenue to nearly $1B and making it one of the 10 largest software companies in the world. In 1997, Chief Executive Magazine named Costello the top performing CEO of all publicly traded companies in North America. During this time, Costello also served on the boards of public companies including Oracle, Macromedia (Adobe) and Mercury Interactive. After Cadence, Costello served as a board member and advisor to dozens of early technology companies and stepped in as CEO for several of them. He is currently Chairman of Metrics Design Automation, Acromove, Kwikbit, ELPHiC and Arrikto. Costello holds a bachelor’s of science degree in mathematics and physics from Harvey Mudd college, a master’s of science degree in physics from Yale University and a master’s of science degree in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jim Hjartarson

Jim Hjartarson

CEO

Jim is a serial entrepreneur and seasoned telecommunications industry veteran with 38 years of industry experience. He is currently CEO of high tech optical device startup ELPHiC. Prior to that he was CEO of OneChip Photonics, a developer of integrated photonics modules for fiber optic based broadband access networks. Before that, Jim was co-founder and CEO of Catena Networks, later acquired by Ciena Corporation, where he was VP of the Broadband Access Group. He was co-founder and VP of the Telecommunications Design Centre within Cadence Design Systems, and before that he spent 16 years at BNR the product R&D organization of Nortel Networks, where he worked on the development of a wide array of access, switching and long haul fiber products. Jim was on the Board of directors of the Telecom Industry Association from 2004 through 2015.

Rob Graham

Rob Graham

CFO

Rob is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified General Accountant with over 25 years of accounting, finance and manufacturing operations experience with high-tech companies. At ELPHiC, Rob is responsible for all aspects of administration, finance, tax, supply chain and strategic planning. Prior to ELPHiC Rob was Chief Financial Officer at OneChip Photonics, a developer of integrated photonics modules for fiber optic based broadband access networks, and before that was Chief Financial Officer at eBillme, a leading online alternative payment provider. Previously, Rob was Vice President of Finance and Operations at Solace Systems Corporation and Vice President of Finance and Operations at AssetMetrix Corporation. Rob also has also held senior finance positions with start-ups Optovation Corporation and Waterfall Networks and with public companies Crosskeys Systems Corporation and Mitel Corporation.

Larry Tarof

Dr. Larry Tarof

CTO

Larry has over 30 years of technical, customer and management experience. Dr. Tarof is an industry veteran with deep expertise in the design and fabrication of optical devices and will play a pivotal role in the product design and fabrication process development at ELPHiC. Larry was Chief (or Principal) Scientist with ADVA, Jabil/AOC, Optelian/Versawave and before that Group IV Semiconductor. Larry also co-founded two start-ups in Ottawa, Canada; enSign and Optovation. Prior to that Larry spent 15 years at BNR/Nortel in various different senior technical roles.

Dr. Rony E Amaya

Dr. Rony E. Amaya

Chief Scientist – High Speed Electronics

Rony is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering and brings over 20 years of technical and research management experience. Prior to ELPHiC, Dr. Amaya held technical positions with Nortel Networks, Skyworks, Teslonix, Solantro and Nanowave Technologies. Rony was also a Research Scientist for the Communications Research Center Canada (CRC) from 2006 to 2015, developing R&D technology for integrated RF circuit and system solutions from S-Band to E-Band and addressing packaging and antenna integration. Rony has previously managed research programs in collaboration with the National Research Council Canada (NRC), GaN Systems, Kennedy Labs, Nanowave Technologies, ELPHiC and Ciena. Dr. Amaya joined the Department of Electronics, at Carleton University, as an Associate Professor in 2016, and his research interest includes RF system design, MMICs and packaging for high-frequency and high-speed applications, active antennas and meta materials and energy harvesting and wireless power transfer. Rony has authored or coauthored more than 100 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings and holds several patents. Dr. Amaya is a member of the Association of Professional Engineerings of Ontario.

Jonathan Boocock

Jonathan Boocock

SVP Product Development

Jonathan has 34 years of experience and is responsible for leading the product development at ELPHiC. Prior to ELPHiC, Mr. Boocock was VP Product Development at OneChip Photonics and prior to OneChip he was EVP of Engineering at BTI Systems Inc., where he managed development of the BTI 7000 Series Service Edge and Aggregation Packet Optical Platform from its inception to its volume delivery to carriers worldwide. Previously, Jonathan was a co-founder and member of the senior management team at Catena Networks, later acquired by Ciena Corporation. He also was a Senior Manager at Nortel Networks, where he led development of its World Line Card access product, which shipped in volumes of more than 12 million lines per year and has a deployed base of greater than 200 million lines.

Jeff Reece

Jeff Reece

SVP Operations

Jeff has over 30 years as a Global Senior Executive with extensive experience in Business Development, Account Management, Hi-Tech Manufacturing, start-up environments and M&A in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia, and significant board level interactions and experience running large, complex, international teams.

Jeff has a proven track record of delivering results through steady leadership, strategic thinking, and solid P&L management. Throughout his career Jeff has driven strategic M&A activities in a number of countries leading to accretive, growing revenue streams.

While at Flex, Jeff managed a $6B+ business unit, including large, complex global teams with customers ranging in size from start-up up to $2B, including sales & business development, P&L responsibility, supply chain design and manufacturing execution. Prior to that he was a key member of the Senior Management team for Catena Networks before it was acquired by Ciena Corp.

Christian Ilmi

Christian Ilmi

VP of Worldwide Sales

Christian has 28 years of experience in the Telecom and high-tech industry. At ELPHiC, Christian leads all sales and marketing activities and plays a pivotal role in setting the go to market strategy for new products. Prior to ELPHiC, Christian was involved in various levels of engineering, product management, marketing, and sales for optical systems companies (Nortel, ONI Systems, Ciena, OpVista, Aurora Networks), sub-systems (Avanex) and optical modules companies (Lumentum, Molex, Source Photonics) in Canada and Silicon Valley California. He has commercially launched four US companies in Europe, and helped lead a start-up grow from 30 to over 800 employees through to a successful IPO. Christian has a BSEE Degree in Telecommunications and an MBA from HEC.

Jim Hjartarson

Jim Hjartarson

CEO

Jim is a serial entrepreneur and seasoned telecommunications industry veteran with 38 years of industry experience. He is currently CEO of high tech optical device startup ELPHiC. Prior to that he was CEO of OneChip Photonics, a developer of integrated photonics modules for fiber optic based broadband access networks. Before that, Jim was co-founder and CEO of Catena Networks, later acquired by Ciena Corporation, where he was VP of the Broadband Access Group. He was co-founder and VP of the Telecommunications Design Centre within Cadence Design Systems, and before that he spent 16 years at BNR the product R&D organization of Nortel Networks, where he worked on the development of a wide array of access, switching and long haul fiber products. Jim was on the Board of directors of the Telecom Industry Association from 2004 through 2015.

Larry Tarof

Dr. Larry Tarof

CTO

Larry has over 30 years of technical, customer and management experience. Dr. Tarof is an industry veteran with deep expertise in the design and fabrication of optical devices and will play a pivotal role in the product design and fabrication process development at ELPHiC. Larry was Chief (or Principal) Scientist with ADVA, Jabil/AOC, Optelian/Versawave and before that Group IV Semiconductor. Larry also co-founded two start-ups in Ottawa, Canada; enSign and Optovation. Prior to that Larry spent 15 years at BNR/Nortel in various different senior technical roles.

Dr. Rony E Amaya

Dr. Rony E. Amaya

Chief Scientist – High Speed Electronics

Rony is an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering and brings over 20 years of technical and research management experience. Prior to ELPHiC, Dr. Amaya held technical positions with Nortel Networks, Skyworks, Teslonix, Solantro and Nanowave Technologies. Rony was also a Research Scientist for the Communications Research Center Canada (CRC) from 2006 to 2015, developing R&D technology for integrated RF circuit and system solutions from S-Band to E-Band and addressing packaging and antenna integration. Rony has previously managed research programs in collaboration with the National Research Council Canada (NRC), GaN Systems, Kennedy Labs, Nanowave Technologies, ELPHiC and Ciena. Dr. Amaya joined the Department of Electronics, at Carleton University, as an Associate Professor in 2016, and his research interest includes RF system design, MMICs and packaging for high-frequency and high-speed applications, active antennas and meta materials and energy harvesting and wireless power transfer. Rony has authored or coauthored more than 100 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings and holds several patents. Dr. Amaya is a member of the Association of Professional Engineerings of Ontario.

Christian Ilmi

Christian Ilmi

VP of Worldwide Sales

Christian has 28 years of experience in the Telecom and high-tech industry. At ELPHiC, Christian leads all sales and marketing activities and plays a pivotal role in setting the go to market strategy for new products. Prior to ELPHiC, Christian was involved in various levels of engineering, product management, marketing, and sales for optical systems companies (Nortel, ONI Systems, Ciena, OpVista, Aurora Networks), sub-systems (Avanex) and optical modules companies (Lumentum, Molex, Source Photonics) in Canada and Silicon Valley California. He has commercially launched four US companies in Europe, and helped lead a start-up grow from 30 to over 800 employees through to a successful IPO. Christian has a BSEE Degree in Telecommunications and an MBA from HEC.

Rob Graham

Steve Xu Lin

VP PLM

Steve has 23 years in telecom hardware development. Steve spent the last 9 years with Nokia / Alcatel Shanghai Bell, most recently as the Head of 5G Advance Development. Prior to ASB Steve worked in the US with PON startup Teknovus as Director of Solution Marketing and before that with Iamba as Director of Field Application Engineering.