 |
NICTA Meet The Founder Series - Dr Scott Rashleigh |
|
|
"If you want to get rich quicky - Go to a casino."
Long before the National Broadband Network, Dr Scott Rashleigh founded AOFR. AOFR was the first company in the world to automate the production of optical fibre components. Scott grew AOFR from a staff of one to over 600 in Canberra and several hundred staff in the US and UK.
Scott will talk about the history of AOFR and the issues involved in establishing and building an internationally successful technology company.
Date: Tuesday 5th July 2011
Time: 5:30pm for canapés
Where: NICTA Seminar Room, Ground Floor, 7 London Circuit, Canberra
RSVP: crlevents@nicta.com.au by Friday 1st July 2011
www.nicta.com.au/nicta_events/meet_the_founder/crl_series
|
About Dr Scott Rashleigh |
|
Scott started professional life as an Engineer with a Doctorate from the University of Queensland. His field was optical fibre technology and he started researching the technology in early 1971 - right at the start of the development of the technology. He spent the first part of his career undertaking research at the Australian National University, the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the US naval Research Laboratory in Washington.
In 1984 at age 34 he returned to Australia and founded AOFR to develop and commercialise the optical device technology. He remained Managing Director until he retired from the company in 2005. During this period AOFR grew from a staff of one to over 600 in Canberra, several hundred staff in the US and a similar number of staff in the UK. For most of this period AOFR supplied around 40% of the world market for optical fibre couplers and splitters. AOFR was unique. The product design and performance was vastly superior to that of competitors and AOFR was the first company in the world to automate the production of optical fibre components. Each component was manufactured "live", fully performance characterised, packaged, sealed and uniquely traceable with minimum human input.
The concept behind AOFR was optical fibre networks. Every network required these components at the end of every length of fibre. If optical networks were to gain wide acceptance, the world would need millions of them. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the application was called Fibre-to-the-Kerb or Fibre-to-the-Home. AOFR supplied to these all around the world. Today, in Australia, it is called the National Broadband Network!
Scott now provides Strategic Business Advice to all types of early-stage technology companies through his company Executive Edge Solutions.
|
