About us

At Cylite, we’re committed to redefining and improving the future of eye health. Since 2013, our passionate team of Australian researchers and innovators has been developing a novel OCT to assist optometry, ophthalmology and research specialists as they continue to strive for better patient outcomes.

The story so far

In 2012, OCT had advanced to a point that it had changed the way optometry and ophthalmology was practiced. Despite that, clinicians were still facing the problem of eye movement artefacts, which inhibited their ability to acquire scans featuring sufficiently accurate eye measurements, especially in the anterior segment.

Utilising their more than 80 years’ of combined experience in optics, the Cylite founding team set out to change that. Having grown a number of companies in the optical and telecommunications space, which have generated over $1bn in revenues, they had amassed a great understanding in the field and used this knowledge to sketch out a proposal – it was a completely different approach to OCT that was more relevant to measuring the surfaces and layers of the eye. These plans were soon formalised, patent applications were developed, and an optical engineer validated the technology.

Not only had they come up with an alternative technology for anterior segment imaging, they also found a way to image the retina.

Next step was to validate the concept with the relevant industry experts. This involved presenting their work at numerous science conferences, including Photonics West, BiOS (biomedical optics and biophotonics exhibition), Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) and Laser World of Photonics.

Many awarded patents later, the technology looks set to redefine a new generation of OCT in ophthalmology and optometry.

Leadership Team

Kylee is a medical device industry expert and brings more than 13 years of senior leadership in sales, marketing and corporate management. She has a record of accomplishment in executing best practice business, sales and marketing strategies in Ophthalmic and Surgical devices.

Prior to joining Cylite, Kylee was the Medical Division Manager for Carl Zeiss Pty Ltd, responsible for overall management of the Australian and New Zealand Medical Business Group as an autonomous profit centre.

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Steve has 25 years experience in photonics,having previously founded Photonic Technologies (acquired by Nortel) and Engana (acquired by Finisar). He is also a prolific inventor, with 47 granted US patents in Optics and was the inventor of the Dynamic Wavelength Processor which has generated more than $ US 1 Billion in cumulative revenue. Steve was awarded the ATSE Clunies Ross Medal in 2013 (together with Simon Poole) in recognition of his success in the development and commercialisation of novel optical technologies. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the recipient of the 2018 OSA Richardson Medal.

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Grant has over 20 years medical and real time software experience, focussing in the areas of Corneal Topography, Ophthalmic Imaging, Perimetry and Optometric software. He designed the Medmont E300 Corneal Topographer software – the gold standard in corneal topography.

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Dr Simon Poole, AO, FAA, FIEEE, FIEAust, FTSE has 40 years experience in photonics in both academia and industry and has been involved in successful technology commercialisation in Australia and globally for over 30 years. He was the founder of Indx Pty Ltd (acquired by JDS Uniphase) and founding CEO of Engana Pty Ltd (now Finisar Australia) which, together, have generated over $US 1B in revenues to date. Simon was awarded the ATSE Clunies Ross Medal in 2013 (together with Steve Frisken) in recognition of his success in the development and commercialisation of novel optical technologies. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 2018 for his contribution to photonics in Australia.

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Trevor has 25 years experience in Industrial R&D, Government Research Labs and Start-ups. Focussing in the areas of Optical Communications and Signal Processing, he was previously CTO and co-founder of MDI which applied the concept of machine learning to the measurement of optical signals in a communications network.

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Kylee is a medical device industry expert and brings more than 13 years of senior leadership in sales, marketing and corporate management. She has a record of accomplishment in executing best practice business, sales and marketing strategies in Ophthalmic and Surgical devices.

Prior to joining Cylite, Kylee was the Medical Division Manager for Carl Zeiss Pty Ltd, responsible for overall management of the Australian and New Zealand Medical Business Group as an autonomous profit centre.

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Simon Davis has 20 years experience in Engineering and manufacturing roles in Australia and Asia. Prior to joining Cylite, he led a number of capital expansion projects working across Asia Pacific and managed teams in product development, manufacturing automation, operations and procurement. His experience includes scaling up manufacturing lines for telecommunication devices and setting up two large scale manufacturing facilities in China

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Andrew Parkinson is a forward-looking engineering and management professional with over 20 years of experience across a broad spectrum of high-growth, cutting-edge technology ventures. His ability to draw the best out of people and projects, flair for innovation, and a robust personal skillset across multiple engineering and scientific disciplines have consistently generated significant commercial value. Prior to joining Cylite, Andrew was the Product Engineering Lead of the XRF Scientific group, where he revitalised their product offering and brought a new instrument to market at least once per annum.

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Nelia is an experienced Financial Controller with a demonstrated history of working across various industries. She is a strong accounting professional with a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) specialising in Management Accounting.

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Arnold is a well-established Regulatory Affairs and Compliance Manager. Having worked for various multi-national companies with footprints in different highly regulated industries, Arnold has 18 years’ experience of successful implementation and execution of regulatory affairs, compliance assurance and product safety strategies along the product life cycle to meet the different requirements of different global jurisdictions.

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The Board

Dr Michael Panaccio has deep experience in the development and commercialisation of businesses in the Life Sciences sector through his role as founding partner of Starfish Ventures. He brings decades of experience as a technology investor and company Director and is Chairman of the Board at Cylite.

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Eitan Gertel, is an experienced entrepreneur and the former CEO of Finisar Corporation, a NASDAQ-listed company with a turnover of >$US1B. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of Optium Corporation, which he took from a VC-funded start-up to a $400M NASDAQ listing.

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Bill is the Managing Partner of Main Sequence Ventures whose mission is to help unreasonable thinkers build game-changing companies that do good. Prior to Main Sequence, he co-founded Blackbird Ventures where he was one of three General Partners and an Investment Committee member. Its first fund is among the top 1% globally for its vintage. Key market leaders Bill has led early-stage investments in include Culture Amp, Altium, Seek, Rome2Rio, Looksmart, Autopilot, Baraja, Q-CTRL, Pending.AI, Kapiche, Prospection, Cylite, and dozens more. Bill’s interests broadly are in breakthrough, science-based ideas that leapfrog today’s solutions.

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Dr Simon Poole, AO, is one of Cylite’s founders has nearly 40 years experience in photonics in both academia and industry. He has been involved in successful technology commercialisation in Australia and globally for over 30 years and was awarded the Order of Australia in 2018 for his contribution to photonics in Australia. (See full bio under Leadership team)

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Steve has 25 years experience in photonics and is a prolific inventor. Steve was awarded the ATSE Clunies Ross Medal in 2013, is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and the recipient of the 2018 OSA Richardson Medal. (See full bio under Leadership team)

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