Primary Job Title Chief Executive Officer Primary Organization 
Fibercore
Location Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom Regions Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Gender Male
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A mechanical engineer by training, Chris joined the University of Southampton Optical Fiber Group in 1983, following an engineering internship at the Corning Glassworks optical fiber fabrication pilot facility.
At Southampton, he studied under professors Alec Gambling and Sir David Payne. His Ph.D. subject was the fabrication of low-loss polymer
optical fibers and he successfully developed an integrated purification, polymerisation and extrusion apparatus. His invited review paper of this technology published in the Journal of Material Science in 1988, is still considered to be a seminal work in the area. In 1987 he joined early spin-out company York VSOP in a commercial capacity, developing markets primarily for the ‘Bow-Tie’ geometry polarisation maintaining fibers and erbium doped fibers.
From this time onwards he has been the hands-on driving force, translating customer needs into fiber specifications that remain manufacturable, whilst delivering at least the desired levels of performance. He is also credited as co-inventor of the manufacturing technique used to produce the all-silica, dual-clad, rare-earth doped fiber that has probably been used in more of the world’s high power fiber amplifiers than any other design.
