Market Focus 2026
Celebrating its 20th year the Market Focus theatre, sponsored by Acacia, remains one of the highlights of the ECOC Exhibition attracting the world’s best speakers from the industry globally.
View the 2026 Market Focus timetable
Some of the excellent presentations from this year, where we have permission to share, will be available to download soon.
The 2026 Market Focus programme brought together leading experts from across the optical communications industry for three days of presentations exploring the technologies and market trends shaping the future of global networks.
The Market Focus programme at ECOC Exhibition 2026 explored the technologies enabling the next generation of AI infrastructure, optical networking, and high-performance connectivity. The sessions examined how the industry is scaling optical solutions to meet growing AI demands, with topics including scale-up and scale-out architectures, co-packaged optics (CPO), silicon photonics, photonics packaging, optical interconnects, laser innovation, and the evolution beyond 1.6T connectivity. Industry experts shared insights into emerging technologies, standards, and manufacturing challenges, alongside panel discussions exploring the future direction of optical solutions for AI data centres.
The programme also focused on the wider impact of AI on networking and service provider infrastructure, covering carrier-grade optical networks, coherent optics, Ethernet evolution, optical circuit switching, high-density interconnects, and next-generation deployment strategies. With contributions from leading companies across the optical communications ecosystem, including Coherent, Source Photonics, Cignal AI, Lumentum, Huawei, Ciena, fibeReality, Cisco, China Telecom, IPEC, Corning, Adtran, Credo, 1Finity, and others, Market Focus provided valuable insight into the innovations, opportunities, and challenges shaping the future of global connectivity.
"Market Focus sessions were very informative and on the edge .... the best attended part of the show in my eyes and one that got a lot of discussion afterwards"
Exhibition Visitor
Market Focus Advisory Committee
Our advisory committee is composed of industry experts who will be reviewing submitted abstracts to plan another exciting live and in-person Market Focus event in Málaga in 2026. Chaired by industry consultant Michael Lebby , the highly industrial and commercially experienced committee includes:
Michael S. Lebby - Committee Chairman
Dr. Michael S. Lebby has deep experience running and leading technology companies, especially those developing, manufacturing and productizing new platform technologies. Dr. Lebby’s experience includes research, development, volume scale, marketing, sales, finance, and corporate activities both with management as well as at a board director level. Dr. Lebby is globally recognized as an expert witness in technology with over 180 patent/IP cases and over 70 Federal court depositions that relate to optics, photonics, electronics and semiconductors, Dr.Lebby has represented many major technology companies in patent litigation. Dr. Lebby’s technical acumen stems from his entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial skills working throughout his career in both large corporate organizations as well as venture backed start-ups and public companies. Dr. Lebby was a member of LWLG’s Board of Directors from 2015 to 2024 and chair from 2022,. Dr Lebby led the corporation as CEO in 2017 and successfully navigated LWLG from OTCQ to the NASDAQ through an organic uplisting with the rare situation of no reverse splits or associated public offering in 2021. The new technology electro-optic polymer platform for optical modulators that Dr. Lebby was driving at LWLG has the potential to change the way the internet operates and performs both from a performance as well as power efficiency perspective and he gave many keynote talks and interviews to put the technology platform on international technology roadmaps. Dr. Lebby has built technical teams not only to productize new and novel technology platforms from research concepts through development to production, but also in sales, marketing, human relations, legal, and finance. Dr. Lebby’s career started with the British Government in 1977 in telecommunications and he did research at their prestigious research labs (RSRE Malvern) in the early 1980s and worked at AT&T Bell Labs (1985-1989) in photonics. At Motorola in the 1990s he drove the development, including the first patent co-authorship of the oxide VCSEL diode laser which is now used in laser mice, 3D sensing/structured light in mobile phones and short distance datacenter optical interconnects with estimated volumes of over 10B units today. From 2005-2010 he led the USA trade association in optoelectronics (OIDA) and represented and petitioned on behalf of the optoelectronics industry on Capitol Hill for major multi-national corporations. Dr. Lebby has run and led several technological start-ups such as Ignis Optics, One Chip Photonics, Translucent Photonics, Lightwave Logic, as well as groups in Motorola, Tyco Electronics, AT&T, Intel and others. Dr. Lebby has nurtured innovative technology through building a range of customers from small business enterprises to multi-national corporations. Dr. Lebby was honored in October 2024 as ‘Photonics 100’ for 2025 by Electro Optics Publication. The award is based on exceptional contributions and achievements in the field of photonics. Dr. Lebby was voted PIC (Photonic Integrated Circuit) business leader of the year by the industry-based PIC International Conference in 2018. He is a technical expert to the European Commission, and a Fellow of NAI, IEEE and Optica. He also is Chair (2024-2026) of Optica’s Corporate Engagement Counsel, a board of industry representatives to further business activity in the sector as well as a Board member of Optica. Dr. Lebby is CEO of GenusTechnik Inc., which assists companies on patent/IP, expert witness, and new leading-edge technologies.
Frank Chang
Frank Chang is an expert in photonic IC technologies, optics transceivers, and optical networking. He is currently corporate CTO of Source Photonics. Previously he served as a senior principal engineer and director for optics interconnect within the CTO Optics Office at Inphi Corporation for over 5.5 years after 12 years of service at Vitesse Semiconductors. In addition, he also held various project and management positions with Cisco/Pirelli, and JDS Uniphase, working on the design, development, and commercialization of fiber optics components. Frank recently published the industry first DCI book entitled “Datacenter Connectivity Technologies: Principles and Practice” in 2018. He is a frequent conference speaker, co-authored 100+ regular journal and conference papers/book chapters, and has served in ECOC and OFC technical committees for several years in a row. Frank was the president and now among the board and advisors at Photonic Society of Chinese-Americans (PSC) as well as IPEC. He is the Industry Forum & Exhibition (IF&E) Chair for Globecom 2015 in San Diego, Globecom 2019 in Hawaii and ICC 2024 in Denver with IEEE Communication Society. Frank obtained his Ph.D degree in Optoelectronics from the Ecole Polytechnique, University of Montreal, Canada for his research thesis on ultrafast optical generation of 1550nm tunable solid-state lasers. Besides Frank is IEEE and Optica/OSA Fellow.
Wladek Forysiak, Professor, University of Bristol
Wladek is Professor of Data Centre Networks at the University of Bristol. He holds a PhD in laser physics and has a research background in nonlinear photonics and high-speed optical fibre communication systems. He was a co-founder of Marconi Solstis in 2000, and spent 15 years in WDM system related product development with Marconi, Ericsson, and Oclaro. A Royal Society Industry Fellow from 2012-16, he was awarded a 5-year EPSRC Manufacturing Fellowship at Aston University in 2015, and is presently the EFFECT Photonics / Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Highly Integrated Coherent optical fibre Communications. His current research interests are in wideband optical fibre communication systems, optical devices and subsystems, the impact and mitigation of device and fibre nonlinearities, and data centre networks.
Dott. Ing. Pierpaolo Ghiggino, CEng, FIET
He received his doctorate degree in Electronic Engineering (Cum Laude) from the University of Pavia, Italy in 1984. He served as Lieutenant in the Surface to Air Missile NATO Forces in North East Italy. He then joined GEC-Marconi SpA working on advanced optical devices and optical networks, often together with the GEC-Hirst Research Centre of the UK, where he later co-ordinated two research groups seconded to Marconi SpA. He brought the Company optical amplifier technology from its initial research to production. He then directed the R&D Photonics Laboratories of Marconi SpA in Genova, which developed the first generation DWDM technology of the GEC group. As GPT and Marconi SpA merged within GEC-Marconi he moved back to the U.K., later becoming an Executive of the newly formed Marconi Communication plc. He ran the Photonics Networks Strategy and SDA groups and helped the Optical Network Business Unit to become a market leader in DWDM networks. As VP of Central Research of Marconi Corporation plc., he then helped to form the optical research complex in Pisa, together with the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. He also worked with the Centre of Advanced Photonics and Electronics of the University of Cambridge in the UK. At Ericsson he formed the group Research Branch in Italy. From 2010 he is a Private Industry Consultant, also helping to form and establish new start-ups. He was professor of Optical Communications at Parma University and lectured at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa.
Daryl Inniss
Industry Expert Daryl Inniss was Director, New Business Development at OFS. He was formerly Components Practice Leader at market research firm Ovum and RHK and recently co-authored Silicon Photonics (Morgan Kaufmann, 2016). Daryl has been in the telecom industry for over 30 years. He was Technical Manager at JDSU and Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories. Daryl started his career as a Member of the Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Labs and holds a PhD in Chemistry from UCLA and an AB from Princeton University.
Karen Liu
Karen Liu is Senior Advisor, PLM at Ciena for the products acquired from Nubis Communications. Previously she was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Lightwave Logic, Inc. and Kaiam Corp. As Principal Analyst at Ovum/Informa/RHK she covered markets as an industry analyst and advised vendors of advanced optical components and a broad range of other emerging technologies. Dr. Liu initially moved from technical R&D to Marketing at Tellabs in order to introduce customers to the then-new approach of DWDM optical networking. She was involved in architecting the first optical networking products and their required components at Tellabs and IBM. She received a PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford University in the field of fiber optics, and a BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University.
Dr. Guangcan Mi
After completing her doctorate in Silicon Photonics, Dr. Guangcan Mi joined Huawei in 2017. She was key contributor to the development of several silicon photonics prototypes, including Microring-based NPO and on-chip OADM. As a Principal Engineer, she is now responsible for overseeing the standardization activities in the Datacom Product Line, specifically focusing on optical modules and optical interconnect technologies. She is actively engaged in shaping the future of optical communication, participating in industry-standard bodies such as IEEE 802.3 and OIF. With a strong track record in both technical innovation and industry collaboration, she is committed to driving the adoption of cutting-edge optical solutions for high-performance Data Centers.
Dr. Jiangwei Man
Dr. Jiangwei Man has 20 years research experience in the field of optical communication. He holds a doctoral degree from the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Dr Man has joined Huawei in 2012 and currently he is the head of Advanced Opto-Electronics Laboratory, focusing on research and development in advanced technologies of optical modules and systems, optical chips, as well as optoelectronic standards and patents. Under Dr. Man’s leadership, the Opto-Electronics R&D team have pioneered technological revolution in optical modules/chips with the speeds of 25 Gbit/s, 50 Gbit/s, 100 Gbit/s, and 400 Gbit/s, as well as optical transmission systems and standard definitions. His team is dedicated to technical research and innovation across various optoelectronic fields and services.
Dr. Stephan Neidlinger
Dr. Stephan Neidlinger joined ADVA, now part of Adtran, in 2008 and plays a key role in promoting and shaping the company’s innovative open connectivity solutions. As Vice President, Global Business Development, Stephan is responsible for developing ADVA’s network management systems and SDN business, managing strategic alliance partners, effectively positioning joint solutions in the marketplace and to the company’s customer base. Stephan is one of the founding members of the WDM PON Forum, member of ECOC Advisory Committee, participating in CableLabs’ working group and TIP OOPT subgroup co-chair. Prior to joining ADVA Optical Networking, Stephan acquired extensive telecommunications experience, working for more than 16 years at Siemens (now part of Nokia). During Stephan’s tenure there, he held a number of research, development, business and product line management positions. He worked extensively on the development of a range of networking technologies, including fiber-in-the-loop, hybrid fiber coax, twisted pair, metro and backbone DWDM systems and Passive Optical Networks (PONs). Stephan earned a master’s degree and doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, where he conducted research into coherent optical transmission systems.
Tiger Ninomiya, Director of Standards, Optical Technologies at Amphenol
Tiger Ninomiya is Director of Standards – Optical Technologies at Amphenol, guiding the technical strategy, architectural design, and global standardization of optical interconnect systems across the Amphenol Group’s broader optics portfolio. He brings over a decade of technical leadership and key contributions across global standards organizations, including IEEE, OIF, IEC, TIA, COBO, and various MSA groups (OSFP, QSFP-DD, LPO). Prior to Amphenol, Tiger held senior technical roles at Accelink USA Corporation and Senko Advanced Components, where he played a central role in the industry adoption of VSFF fiber optic connectors.
Loukas Paraschis
Loukas has more than 25 years of industry experience, primarily in optical networks and the related technology and infrastructure evolution of data centers, cloud, and the Internet, and in managing technology, product, and business development, and system engineering teams. Until August 2024, Loukas was vice president in the connectivity products group at Alphawave Semi, which he joined in 2022 through the acquisition of Banias Labs, an optical DSP start-up. Before Banias, Loukas was for 5 years at Infinera as senior director and then CTO of cloud transport system engineering for Internet and content providers, and for 15 years at cisco where he worked on many generations of optical and routing systems and wireline transport networks. Loukas has (co)authored more than 100 peer‐reviewed publications, invited or tutorial presentations, and book chapters, 9 patents, and has served in IEEE and OSA leadership positions, including the OFC and JOCN steering and longrange planning committees, as an IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer (2009), and is an OPTICA (OSA) Fellow (elected in 2011). Loukas studied at Stanford University (PhD 1999, MS 1998) where he worked at the Ginzton, Information Systems, and Networking laboratories, and was born and raised in Athens, Greece, where he completed his undergraduate studies.
Sanjai Parthasarathi
Sanjai Parthasarathi joined Coherent Corp. in 2013 and has been the Chief Marketing Officer since 2019. Previously, Dr. Parthasarathi was Vice President, Product Marketing and Strategy, Photonics, since 2015. Prior to Coherent, he served as Senior Director, Product Line Management, at Oclaro. Over his 30+ year career he has broad management and technical experience and the opportunity to work in all of the diverse markets that Coherent addresses. Dr. Parthasarathi graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, and holds an M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from the Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Abdul Rahim
Dr. Abdul Rahim is a seasoned expert in integrated photonics, managing an ecosystem of over 70 organizations at PhotonDelta since 2024. As a global technology strategist, he holds a PhD in silicon photonics from TU Berlin and a degree in innovation management from HEC Paris. His career spans research roles at top institutions across Europe and North America, and he led ePIXfab, transforming it into a premier silicon photonics alliance. Since 2020, he has co-led the silicon photonics chapter of the Integrated Photonics Systems Roadmap – International. Recognized as a Photonics100 honouree in 2024, he is passionate about contributing to shaping the future of integrated photonics.
Bill Ring
Bill Ring is an expert in Photonics and semiconductor technology. Currently, he is CEO of C2Laser LLC, a startup that is developing high speed, extremely low power consumption lasers using a new deposition process technology. Previously, he held roles at Vector Photonics, Voyant Photonics and Poet Technologies. In 2014, Bill founded BB Photonics Inc. a startup company focused on developing low stress and low loss SiON technology for optical transceivers. In June of 2016, he sold the company to Poet Technologies. Prior to Poet Technologies, Bill worked in Australia at a CPV company, Solar Systems Pty Ltd, where he held roles as both as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to this he had started his consulting business in November 2004. The company worked with many fortune 500 and optical startup companies. Prior to 2005, Bill held positions at Tyco Electronics and Hewlett Packard (HP). At HP he was responsible for the design and development of 1310nm FP, 1480nm pump and DFB lasers for HP’s fiber optics group. Bill Holds a PhD from Surrey University in III-V light emitting devices.
Mark Watts
Mark T. Watts is an Associate Fellow Designer and Architect at Verizon Communications. He joined Verizon’s predecessor Bell Atlantic in 1997 with various increases in responsibility. He has been primarily focused on physical layer transport, data and IP engineering, and most recently wireless transport for 4G and 5G network and architecture. He sets the architecture guidance for Fronthaul, Midhaul and Backhaul for Verizon Wireless. Mark currently serves as Working Group 9 (Transport)Co-Chair in the O-RAN Alliance.
Werner Weiershausen
Werner Weiershausen is the lead architect for German transport platforms at Deutsche Telekom, being responsible for the evolution of Germany’s multi-layer networks. This includes the optical transport for long-haul, mobile backhaul and fronthaul and fixed access, moreover OTN and IP-over-WDM integration, and applications like QKD. He is engaged in open ecosystem evolution for vendor-agnostic all-optical and IP-optical networks with regard to user and control plane interoperability and overarching orchestration, that is driven by different standardization bodies such as TIP and OpenROADM, for the latter Werner being DT delegate and board member. After graduating in Electrical & RF Engineering in 1992, he began his career at the Universities of Ulm and Darmstadt, Germany, as a researcher in the field of integrated optical devices based on III/V semiconductors, with the focus on manufacturing technology, mathematical modeling, and measurement technology. Since 1998, he has worked for Deutsche Telekom as a researcher in fiber optic transmission, particularly in the areas of PMD and nonlinear impairments, later as a manager for various kinds of DT projects. Prior to his architectural roles at DT, he served as CSO on the management board of Luxdyne Ltd., Espoo, Finland (optical FTTx subsystems). He has been active in standardization (IEC, ITU-T, DKE, OpenROADM) as well as in conference organization, for example as a symposium chair of SPIE Optics East and in various chair positions at Photonics West, ITCom and OFC.