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OptiEnz Sensors CEO to be e2e Wyomings Laramie Guest Speaker Jan. 27

head portrait of man
Steve Witt, CEO of OptiEnz Sensors LLC, will be the guest speaker at e2e Wyoming’s monthly meeting in Laramie Jan. 27. (Photo provided by WTBC)

The CEO of OptiEnz Sensors LLC will be the guest speaker of e2e Wyoming’s meeting in Laramie this month.

Steve Witt will speak Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 5:30-7 p.m., at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, 222 S. 22nd St., in Laramie. The title of his talk is “Hiring a CEO Can Take a Startup to the Next Level.”

“Steve will make a good speaker because of his extensive and varying business background and leadership experience,” says Mandy Moore, assistant director of the Wyoming Technology Business Center (WTBC). “He has held leadership positions with large corporations and several small startups, and can offer valuable leadership insights to Laramie’s growing entrepreneurial community.”

OptiEnz Sensors, a spinoff business from Colorado State University, is a startup company that develops biosensors that monitor organic chemicals in food and beverage processing, industrial fermentations and water supplies.

“Growing and running a successful high-tech business requires significant leadership skills,” says Ken Reardon, the company founder who hired Witt as CEO in 2013. “Steve has these skills as well as the technology background to understand and be the interface of customers.” 

Witt is a seasoned technology executive who has worked in Fortune 500 companies as well as startup companies, innovating new product lines and creating new businesses in test and measurement instrumentation markets. In each of his management positions he has led multi-function teams (research and development, marketing, manufacturing and sales) and has had profit and loss responsibility.

Witt started his career with Hewlett-Packard and held research and development management, and operations management positions within the company. He was promoted to vice president and general manager of Agilent Technologies’ Network Systems Test Division in Colorado Springs, with operations in Singapore, when Agilent spun off from Hewlett-Packard.

Subsequently, he was the president of Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC), headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. CCC provides control systems and services for turbo-machinery applications in global energy markets. 

Witt was then the vice president and general manager of Tektronix’ Logic Analyzer division, located in Beaverton, Ore., with operations in Bangalore, India. He was the vice president of business development of Constant Wave, an early stage-company located in Colorado Springs.

Witt graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University.

E2e is an educational networking program with chapters in Laramie, Casper, Gillette and Sheridan. It is designed to improve the climate for the startup and growth of entrepreneurial companies. Each e2e chapter meets bimonthly for 45 minutes of networking, followed by a 45-minute program. The programs include successful entrepreneurs telling their stories, panel discussion on relevant topics and advice from experts in a specific business.

Administered by the UW Office of Research and Economic Development, the WTBC is a not-for-profit business incubator that provides entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools necessary for success. The WTBC launched e2e as an educational networking program.

For more information on e2e, call the WTBC at (307) 766-6395.

 

 

Contact Us

Institutional Communications
Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: (307) 766-2929
Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu


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