Rubicon Technology, a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, semiconductor, and optical industries, today announced the appointment of Hap Hewes as Senior Vice President, Optical. He will lead marketing and business development activity for sapphire products in the aerospace, optical, consumer electronics and industrial markets.

Rubicon has new products in development, including:

• very large, thick sapphire plates for aerospace and defense,
• scratch-resistant sapphire-coated faceplates for smartphones and larger devices, and
• a new sapphire growth process, currently in the proof-of-concept stage, to produce solid sapphire faceplates in the desired net shape, eliminating nearly all of the fabrication costs.

Hewes, who was Rubicon’s Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, from 2006 through 2009 and Rubicon’s Senior Vice President, Supply Chain and Business Development, from 2004 to 2005, has returned to the company to bring this wide range of exciting new products to market and to lead the company’s traditional optical components business.

Bill Weissman, Rubicon’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am delighted that Hap Hewes has returned to Rubicon. Hap has broad knowledge and relationships in the sapphire industry and in some of our target markets, and he has extensive experience developing new markets and managing fast-growing products. He brings a much-needed skill set to Rubicon at an opportune time. With new products in development for both the aerospace industry and the consumer electronics industry, we will be forging many new customer relationships over the next several quarters and working to maximize the opportunity provided by our unparalleled capability for innovation in sapphire crystal growth.”

From 2010 until recently, Hewes was Senior Vice President, Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Field Service, for ARC Energy, a capital equipment provider for the LED industry and other high-tech markets. Concurrently, he served as interim CEO for a related company, ABS Materials. Prior to his Rubicon experience, Hewes worked for Saint-Gobain Crystals and for Saphikon, a crystal manufacturer that was acquired by Saint-Gobain. He also worked for Technology Marketing Group (TMG) in Acton, MA, a consultancy focused on identifying and developing new markets for technology firms. Hewes has an MBA degree from the University of Michigan and a BS in biology from Cornell University.