Fitel Technologies Enters North American Optoelectronics Marketplace; John Pilitsis to Head

In a move to establish a strong presence in the North American fiber optics and optoelectronics market, Japan-based Furukawa Electric Co. (FEC) has formed Fitel Technologies Inc. (Clinton, NJ). Supported by more than 1,000 FEC scientists, engineers, and product developers, Fitel will concentrate on marketing, regional product development, sales, and manufacturing. To help achieve its ambitious goal of being one of the top tier optoelectronic suppliers within 24 months, the company has named John Pilitsis to the position of CEO; Pilitsis was formerly COO of Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) Optoelectronics business.

Fitel is targeting pump lasers, passive devices for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) applications, and devices based on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology.