Denis Lafrance will retire at the end of December and will leave his place to his assistant director, Mr. Maroun Massabki.
“It is with great pride that I retire. We have experienced many difficulties, but we have been able to seize major opportunities such as the first IRs from NSERC and special funding from the Government of Quebec, which has enabled us to build a solid and relevant team. Well anchored in the respect and appreciation of the members of its team, Optech will be able to continue to rely on their passion to seek out many little extras that will make good differences for society.” says Mr. Denis Lafrance.
After 16 years at the head of Montreal’s Physics and Photonics Technology Center (Optech), Denis Lafrance will retire at the end of December.
He began his career with a Ph.D. at INRS-Energy and Materials as part of the Tokamak de Varennes project, a project to build a magnetic containment device for nuclear fusion located at the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ). He continued his career in the private sector for MPB Communications and ITF Technologies Inc. in the field of optical research and development in the natural resources, security, and telecommunications sectors. In 2005, he took over the management of Optech at its Montreal site. Under his leadership, Optech has grown to a team of 30 employees and $4M in annual business volume.
He was also a member of the Réseau photonique du Québec’s (RPQ) Board of Directors for many years. He contributed to the creation, in 2017, of Optonique, the Centre of Excellence, where he continued to sit on the Board of Directors until June 2021.
In 2018, he also became a member of Synchronex‘s board of directors (known as TransTech Network at the time). In the fall of 2019, he became Chair President of the Synchronex Board of Directors.
Happy retirement to Mr. Lafrance!
