Crystal IS Announces New CEO

Crystal IS, Inc. announced that it has hired Dr. Steven Berger as President and CEO. Dr. Berger joins Crystal IS from FEI Company [Nasdaq: FEIC], where he was Chief Operating Officer and also previously served as Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Berger was a key member of FEI's executive management team that helped grow annual revenues from $150 million to over $600 million. Dr. Berger was also Technical Manager at AT&T Bell Labs. He also taught at Cambridge University, U.K., after receiving his Ph.D. from the Cavendish Laboratory. He holds a dozen U.S. patents and is widely published in the fields of electron beam lithography, microscopy and analysis.

Dr. Berger's experience in bringing new product to markets will be instrumental as Crystal IS drives the commercial deployment of its proprietary UV-LED technology. Leveraging more than a decade of research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Crystal IS has developed the world's leading technology for manufacturing single crystal aluminum nitride substrates needed for high performance UV LED's.

"I could not be more excited to join Crystal IS," said Steven Berger. “Providing the world with clean water and clean air are billion dollar global opportunities—and Crystal IS is the only company capable of manufacturing AlN substrates needed to power high performance UV-LEDs”.

The primary applications for UV LEDs are compact, long lasting, efficient light sources for water disinfection systems.