For Pascal Gallo, diamonds have always been near to his heart. Thanks to his grandfather – a mine prospector in Africa – very early on Pascal developed a deep passion for crystals and precious stones. After his PhD in quantum physics and crystal growth, he joined Prof. Eli Kapon’s group at EPFL to continue his research on fundamental interactions between light and matter in semiconductor nanostructures. He then served as operation planner and Chief Business Development Officer in startups that were active in photonics, before co-founding LakeDiamond.

Theophile Mounier, Master’s in Management (NEOMA Business School) brings 18 years of international experience in finance leadership, controlling, internal audit and in mergers and acquisitions, to LakeDiamond. He has led finance in organisations up to EUR 2bn turnover as well as in SMEs and start-ups.

Nathalie Barzilay is a Swiss-qualified lawyer and a GIA Graduate Gemologist. She worked several years in Switzerland's largest law firm and major jewellery Maisons. She was further instrumental in establishing a crypto-trading business and worked on asset-backed ICO projects. As the right-hand person of the CEO, Nathalie ensures the smooth implementation of our business strategy.

Christophe Provent, MBA, PhD, fuses a passion for chemistry with a vision for business. After working as director of operations and finances at CSEM and co-founding Adamant Technologies, Christophe co-founded NeoCoat, industry leader in diamond coating and CVD diamond reactor manufacturing.

David Rats holds a PhD in CVD diamond growth. After his tenure as process engineer at Philips semiconductor foundry, quality & production director at Xenocs and process manager at Adamant Technologies, David co-founded NeoCoat with Christophe Provent. He is currently CTO, and in particular, in charge of LakeDiamond’s lab.

Alex Kummerman is a serial entrepreneur and fundraiser with 25 years of experience linking the digital world with the real economy. Alex brings skills in strategy, international business development and complex project management to his role at LakeDiamond in investor relations and initial coin offerings (ICO).

Romain Braud has been at the forefront of the emerging Blockchain industry. Over the last 13 years he has launched and managed successful global operations at the intersection of ICT, business and cryptofinance. Building on his solid IT business acumen, Romain is spearheading the development of LakeDiamond's token, Blockchain strategy and protocol as well as leading on digital technology and cybersecurity.

Jérôme Bailly holds a MSc Digital Business from SKEMA Business School in Sophia Antipolis technology park. Passion-driven Marketing & Communication senior executive, Jérôme is a digital marketing expert with a deep knowledge of the customer engagement process. Jérôme has joined LakeDiamond to lead the marketing and communication of the company with a specific focus on the ICO.

Nicolas Malpiece received his Master’s degree from Sup’Optique Paris, France, and has an in-depth knowledge of photonic applications. He is currently supervising the implementation of our ShineOn’s power beaming project, in collaboration with Andrei Caliman.

Eli Kapon, PhD, has extensive research and industry experience in the field of lasers. Specialist areas include phase-locked arrays of semiconductor lasers and integrated optics in III-V compounds, and low-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures, particularly quantum wires and quantum dots. Eli Kapon heads LakeDiamond power beaming VECSELs laser activity.

Camille Husson-Stengel holds a Master from HEC Paris Business School and is specialized in luxury management. She spearheads work on the LakeDiamond jewellery market activity.

Mehdi Naamoun received his PhD from LSPM in Paris, France, a prominent lab specialized in diamond growth and characterization. His research focused on diamond growth, and its use in high-power devices. He is currently in charge of growth process development, and has responsibility for key projects on diamond devices at LakeDiamond.

Ioulia Tsvetkova, PhD, received her PhD in diamond growth in 1993 with Prof. Fedoseev at Moscow University. Ioulia has an extensive experience in both research and industrialisation. In her role as CSO, Ioulia coordinates all the diamond characterization activities, as well as HPHT diamond supply, at LakeDiamond.

Berrazouane Riad performed his studies at EPFL, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where he obtained a Master’s degree in Materials Science & Engineering. After working for Thales Research & Technology in collaboration with the Laboratory of Semiconductors Materials at EPFL, he acquires experience in the clean room processes and develops interest in the field of nanotechnologies. His following experience was his Master thesis at LakeDiamond on laser power converters for the project ShineOn, he is now currently working on the realization of micromechanical parts for the watch industry. 

Henry Kummerman has been trained at Lycee Auguste Renoir, a Parisian art school. He then studied at Les Compagnons du Tour de France before travelling for his studies in Indonesia and Australia. He is now building up expertise in diamond cutting and processing using traditional and high tech tools.

Andrei Caliman received a Master's degree in solid-state electronics from the Technical University of Moldova, Chisinau. He has more than 20 years’ experience in laser development and manufacturing, both in research laboratories and companies. He is currently developing diamond-based, high-power lasers at LakeDiamond.

Grigore Suruceanu received a Master’s degree in Physics with specialization in Optoelectronics & Microelectronics from Moldova State University. He has more than 29 years of work experience in R&D as well as manufacturing of the edge emitting semiconductors lasers/VCSELs and different optoelectronics systems for optical data communications, laser beam machining as well as laser scanning projection systems. He worked for companies BeamExpress SA, Synova SA, Lemoptix SA and Intel. He is a co-author of 4 patents, 3 patent’s applications and more than 70 scientific communications published in specialized scientific journals and presented at different conferences. Currently Mr. Suruceanu is working on development of diamond- based high-power IR lasers at LakeDiamond SA.

Alexandru Mereuta, PhD, has extensive research and industry experience in the field of epitaxial growth and fabrication of III-V semiconductor laser diodes and structures. He developed epitaxial structures enabling the fabrication of some of the best performance long wavelength VCSELs and VECSELs demonstrated so far. He is currently in charge of epitaxial growth and wafer fusion process for the development and fabrication of next generation of VCSEL and VECSEL lasers.

Alexey Feofanov received a PhD in physics from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. After completing his PhD, Alexey held a postdoctoral fellowship at Néel Institute in Grenoble and a group leader position at EPFL. He has an extensive research experience in the filed of superconducting quantum circuits and quantum optomechanics. He is currently in charge of developing of new devices utilising quantum properties of defect centres in diamond.

Jelena Vukajlovic Plestina has a master degree in physics and PhD in material science, in the field of crystal growth. During her research she was working on position controlled growth of filamentary crystals (semiconductor nanowires) that, beside knowledge and experience in growth, required many different skills regarding micro and nano fabrication. After PhD and postdoc at EPFL she joined LakeDiamond as a senior process manager enrolled in process development and quality control.

Michaël GALLO got a bachelor in English and Italian foreign language, literature and civilization. After having taught english in elementary, secondary, and comprehensive school, he acquired experience in sales. He eventually turned to gems etching and polishing throughout a training program in the south of France. He is currently working as a process operator in the realization of micromechanical parts for the watch industry.

Greg Boccard is taking care of all aspects of the IT infrastructure at LakeDiamond. Holding a MSc in computer science from Télécom Saint-Etienne, he previously worked for several financial and software companies in Switzerland and the UK. Greg is specialised in continuous deployment of web platforms in the cloud, as well as securing & monitoring critical applications.

Jean-Philippe Aumasson is principal research engineer at Kudelski Security, PhD from EPFL and he’s known for designing the cryptographic functions BLAKE2 with Zooko Wilkox (Zcash) and works on new post quantum cryptographic schemes. JP speaks oftenly at Black Hat, DEFCON, CCC, Troopers among other international conferences. He brings his expertise information security and audits of blockchain technologies.

Niels Quack MS, PhD, brings deep R&D experience in integrated photonics to LakeDiamond. After concluding post-doctoral studies in the US, he joined Sercalo Microtechnology as MEMS engineer. Appointed Professor at EPFL, Niels is leading research programs on diamond microprocessing in collaboration with LakeDiamond.

Christophe Galland has founded a research group that carries out extensive research on advanced studies in the field of quantum photonics. He has extensive connections with research institutes worldwide that have enabled fruitful scientific collaborations with LakeDiamond.

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral leads the Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials at EPFL. Her research focuses on the exploration of novel semiconductor structures for next generation energy harvesting and computing technologies.

Professor Governance and Finance, IMD
Founder and Director of IMD Global Board Center
Professor Cossin is the founder and director of the IMD Global Board Center, the originator of the Four Pillars of Board Effectiveness methodology and an advocate of Stewardship. He is the author and co-author of books such as Inspiring Stewardship, book chapters (such as Governance Risk: A Guide for Investors) and many articles in the fields of governance, investments, risks and stewardship, several of which have obtained citations of excellence or other awards.