- Push-out Score determined
- After 31 years in the position
- Praise for Gapontsev
- Eugene Scherbakov taking over
- Gapontsev will remain as Executive Chairman at IPG Photonics
- Gapontsev said 104 words
(exechange) — Oxford, Massachusetts, May 4, 2021 — Valentin Gapontsev, chief executive of IPG Photonics, leaves his position. As announced by IPG Photonics Corp. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, Valentin P. Gapontsev leaves his post as chief executive officer at the manufacturer of fiber lasers after 31 years in the role, effective immediately.
It is the end of an era.
Valentin Gapontsev’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Eugene A. Scherbakov, most recently Chief Operating Officer at IPG Photonics Corp.
“Succession plan”
Valentin Gapontsev’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. John Peeler, Lead Independent Director, said: “This implements the succession plan discussed by the IPG Board for some time. Dr. Scherbakov is uniquely qualified for his new role.”
Gapontsev will remain as Executive Chairman at IPG Photonics
“Dr. Valentin Gapontsev, founder of the Company and current CEO and Chairman of the Board, becomes Executive Chairman and continues his involvement in directing research and development and strategy,” IPG Photonics said.
IPG Photonics said: “Eugene A. Scherbakov Ph.D., currently Chief Operating Officer, Managing Director of IPG Laser GmbH, Senior Vice President, Europe and Director, succeeds Valentin P. Gapontsev, Ph.D., as IPG Photonics’ Chief Executive Officer.”
Share price increase since May 2016
The announcement follows an increase in IPG Photonics Corp.’s share price of 144% since May 2016.
In the position of CEO since 1990
Valentin Gapontsev became CEO of the Company in 1990.
Gapontsev has been the CEO and Chairman of the Board of IPG since the Company’s inception.
Prior to founding the Company’s predecessor in 1990, Gapontsev served as senior scientist in laser material physics and head of the laboratory at the Soviet Academy of Science’s Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Moscow.
His innovations and inventions are credited with having created the high power fiber laser industry.
Gapontsev is the named inventor on over 100 patents and author of over 200 scientific papers.
In 2006, he was awarded the Ernst & Young® Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Industrial Products and Services in New England and in 2009, he was awarded the Arthur L. Schawlow Award by the Laser Institute of America.
In 2011, he received the Russian Federation National Award in Science and Technology, and he was selected as a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.
Gapontsev holds a Ph.D. in Laser Materials from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Push-out Score determined
The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding Valentin Gapontsev’s move on a scale of 0 to 10.
exechange reached out to IPG Photonics and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 19.2021 ($).