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Luminar (Nasdaq: LAZR) has announced several new additions to its technical leadership. Taner Ozcelik, founder of Nvidia’s automotive business, joined Luminar as executive vice president and general manager to oversee Luminar’s product development, R&D, program management, and semiconductor subsidiaries. CJ Moore, who served as director of Autopilot software at Tesla and most recently was a director of autonomous systems at Apple, will join Luminar to lead its software program and execute its vision for next -generation safety and autonomy.
“With industry -defining technology and now nearly a dozen big commercial wins on hand, Luminar is ready for the next phase of its leadership as everyone is focused on implementation,” said Luminar Founder and CEO, Austin Russell. “We encourage the world’s best leaders in their fields to carry out our vision and usher in the future of transportation.”
Taner Ozcelik (Ph.D.) joined as executive vice president and general manager. He is responsible for R&D, product development, program management, IT, platform partnerships, and Luminar’s semiconductor subsidiaries. Prior to Luminar, he founded Nvidia’s automotive business and grew it over a decade into a multi-hundred million dollar business revenue. Luminar is the long-range lidar for NVIDIA’s DRIVE Hyperion autonomous vehicle platform. He most recently served as senior vice president and general manager at ON Semiconductor Corporation, where he revolutionized the intelligent sensing business and led it to become the global camera market leader in automotive and robotics with approximately one billion dollars in revenue. Ozcelik is an industrious collector, commercially savvy, technical in -depth general manager with proven experience delivering complex technology solutions to automotive OEMs and consumers.
CJ Moore joined as vice president of software. Moore will lead Luminar’s global software development team, and will be instrumental in the advancement of Sentinel, Luminar’s full-stack advanced safety and autonomous solution. CJ previously served as Tesla’s director of autopilot software development with seven years at the company, and most recently as director of autonomous systems at Apple. He brings an intense “build and ship” mentality and deep experience in embedded software and systems engineering to Luminar.
These new executives join a string of impressive, senior technical hires at Luminar spanning manufacturing, business development, engineering and IP. Luminar also hired the following executives:
- Jackie Chen (Ph.D) joins as the leader of China: Chen is responsible for expanding Luminar’s business in China. Prior to Luminar, Chen served as President at Harman International, China, a leading Tier 1 automotive supplier and lifestyle solution provider for professional consumer audio products, where he led the business to one billion in revenue. Prior to that, he served as CTO and Automotive Division head at Schaeffler Group in China and Asia Pacific, a leading global supplier to the automotive and industrial sectors.
- Rimjhim Dasgupta joins as chief of staff at EVP and GM and vice president of program management: Dasgupta delivers extensive engineering program management experience, leading teams from concept to production. Most recently, he served as chief of staff at Intel’s Emerging Growth and Incubation Group, including managing its silicon engineering team for lidar and radar. Prior to that, he held senior operational and technical program management roles at Synaptics, Apple and AMD.
- Jared Jacobs joins as vice president and head of manufacturing operations: Jacobs is responsible for Luminar’s global manufacturing operations and the series production launch with its partners. Prior to Luminar, he served as senior vice president and general manager of global electronics at ZF Group, which supplies systems for passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and industrial technology. Jacobs delivers experience in leading multi-billion global P&L, safety responsibility, advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), and chassis electronic systems. His global leadership of ZF’s manufacturing operations will be instrumental as Luminar reviews its contract manufacturing operations with Fabrinet in Thailand and Celestica in Mexico.
- Anders Grunnet-Jepsen (Ph.D.) joins as head of advanced development: Grunnet-Jepsen joined Luminar after serving as chief technology officer for Intel’s RealSense Group, which developed and manufactured lidar and 3D camera systems. As a CTO and founder, Dr. Grunnet-Jepsen brings experience in developing and leading well-performing teams in developing and scaling innovative technology. At Luminar, he drives the development of next -generation lidar and related technologies in addition to advanced manufacturing technologies.
- Chris Lubeck (Ph.D.), joins as head of intellectual property: Lubeck joined Luminar to lead its IP efforts and strategy, powered by the largest lidar patent portfolio of its kind in the industry. Prior to Luminar, Chris served as chief IP advisor at Tesla, as well as a similar role at ServiceNow. Chris also served as an advisor to Apple during the smartphone patent wars of the past decade. Chris ’leadership will allow the company to fully defend its intellectual property rights and leadership in the industry.