SPIE 50 Years of Advancing the Laser - nLIGHT
5 March 2010, SPIE Newsroom. DOI: 10.1117/2.3201003.01
Video interview with Scott Keeney: staying ahead of the laser market
The president and CEO of nLight talks about building a laser company and keeping track of where the market is headed.
Scott Keeney is president and CEO of nLight, a manufacturer of semiconductor lasers. Prior to co-founding nLight, he was CEO of Aculight, a developer of advanced solid-state lasers. nLight has operations in Vancouver, Washington, Hillsboro; Oregon; Shanghai, China; Heilbronn, Germany; and Lohja, Finland.
nLIGHT has raised over $90 million from leading venture capital investors including Oak Investment Partners, Menlo Ventures, and MDV. In 2009, nLIGHT was named one of the fastest growing companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 program for the fourth year in a row, recognizing the fastest-growing technology, media, telecom and life sciences companies in North America based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth over five years. In 2008 nLIGHT was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from The Oregon Entrepreneurs' Network. In 2006, Keeney received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Technology in the Pacific Northwest.
Keeney is also founder and chairman of nConnect NW, an education non-profit focused on enhancing rigorous high school programs in the Northwest. He serves on the board of directors of the Washington Technology Center, which helps companies develop and commercialize technology products and services in Washington state. For more than two decades, WTC has successfully channeled state and federal funding for research and business development and fostered mutually beneficial partnerships between technology companies, academic researchers, and laboratory facilities across the state.