John Dexheimer

John Dexheimer is President of LightWave Advisors, Inc. since 1999. He has advised on over 100 completed company financings and M&A in photonics, software, internet services, and communications. As an investment banker he led the IPO of Uniphase (JDSU) and its early acquisition growth that transformed it into an industry leader in supplying optical communications systems. He has helped found startups and led successful private investments for several affiliated VC equity funds – including investments resulting in over a dozen IPOs. He has had operating roles in startups and turnarounds in addition to serving on Boards of public and private firms. He is a board member of INDO-US MIM Tec Pvt. Ltd., and an advisory member of the College of Science & Engineering of the University of Minnesota, and to the NSF Institute of Mathematical Applications http://www.ima.umn.edu.

He is also a partner of First Analysis Private Equity Fund IV www.fana.com.

John was a long time board member and treasurer of OIDA www.oida.org , was co-Chair of its successful 2009 OPTOmism conference on emerging energy and environmental applications; has been co-Chairman of the Executive Forum for the Optical Society of America, a speaker at numerous events including OFC, Photonics West, CLEO, DOE, MIT. He has published studies on the role of sensor networks and the status of sensing applications.

John has advised a number of large corporations on strategies and business development as well as selected US Government agencies. He was an invited contributor to the 2012US National Academy of Sciences committee report entitled “Harnessing Light- Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st Century”.  In 2012 he was Co-Chairman of a workshop on Entrepreneurship sponsored by the NSF for doctorial candidates and post-docs.

He earned an MBA from Harvard University and a B.S. from the University of Minnesota.