|
Dr. Pelka was awarded his Ph.D. in solid-state physics from the University of California at Riverside in 1971. He held faculty positions in the Physics and Electrical Engineering Departments of Northrop University and California State University Long Beach from 1971 to 1980. In 1980, Dr. Pelka started the Research/Engineering Division for National Technical Systems (NTS) as its Vice President and General Manager and grew it to over 45 people with annual revenues in excess of $10,000,000 in five years. In 1986 he left NTS to help found Physical Optics Corporation (POC), which now provides products for the fields of optoelectronics, optics and microstructured diffuser films, with revenues in excess of $20,000,000. While at POC from 1986-1992, Dr. Pelka was vice President of Business Development and helped secure over $3M in venture capital for the company. He was also primarily responsible for establishing and growing the SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) program to approximately $7M/year before he left POC in 1992.
In 1992, Dr. Pelka co-founded TIR Technologies, Inc. (TIR) in order to pursue optical patents he held for the fields of LED lighting systems and LCD backlights. He served as President and Chairman of TIR and raised over $2,000,000 in private equity capital and licensing income for TIR. TIR (later renamed Teledyne Lighting and Display Products Inc.) was acquired by Teledyne Industries in 1997, where under a 5-year employment contract, he served as Director of Product Development from 1997-2002. He has over 30 technical publications to his credit as well as 35+ patents issued in the U.S. and foreign countries, with many others currently pending. Dr. Pelka�s patents have resulted in over $6M in licensing revenues over the past 5 years. Dr. Pelka left Teledyne Lighting and Display Products to found Pelka & Associates, Inc. in May of 2002, a private optical consulting company where he currently serves as President, specializing in LED lighting technology and IP as well as nano and micro structured optical film products. Dr. Pelka particularly enjoys helping early stage companies secure growth capital, including assisting with their business strategy and planning. | 