Rick LaFrance

Mr. LaFrance is former President of Olympus Integrated Technologies America, Inc.

Prior to joining Olympus in 1999, Mr. LaFrance was the Vice President of Marketing, Customer Support and Sales for Aplex (a CMP startup company which he joined in 1998). Between 1993 and 1998 he was the Vice President of Marketing and Process Engineering for Silicon Valley Group, Track Systems Division in San Jose, California. He has over twenty years of experience in the semiconductor equipment and photomask industries including a position as the Director of Marketing for Nikon Precision, the U. S. subsidiary of Nikon Corporation. Mr. LaFrance has worked as an acquisitions manager for a multi-billion dollar European corporation, lived and worked in Europe where he also started a photomask company. His early career included production management at National Semiconductor and a number of years of selling and marketing in the photomask industry.

An author of numerous articles in marketing and technology for the semiconductor equipment industry, Mr. LaFrance holds both B.Sc. and MBA degrees from San Jose State University.