Dr. Wei Gao has been working on optoelectronics for over 20 years. In 2000, he started his venture-backed company, Axcel Photonics, to make high performance semiconductor lasers. As Founder, CTO, President, and CEO, he built up the company from inception with extreme capital efficiency, developed superior technology and products. More important, he managed investors expectations properly and developed great rapport from board members and investors. In 2005, the company was sold to private investors and he stayed on as President to run the company. Other working experience include: a former faculty member at Beijing University in Physics Department; an engineer at Lasertron (later Corning Lasertron); a founding employee at Multiplex, a high tech startup in New Jersey; and held sales/marketing role at Nortel Networks in Optoelectronics Division.

He has a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware, Newark, DE; a M.S. in Applied Physics from the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Northern Jiaotong University, Beijing; and a B.S. degree in Physics in 1984 from Jilin Normal University, Siping, P.R. China.

He has over 20 technical papers published and three US patents granted. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and LEOS, a Member of Optical Society of America, a Member of OCEAN (Overseas Chinese-American Entrepreneurs Association), and a Member of NECINA (New England Chinese Information and Networking Association).