WORDS TO THE WISE FROM AN INDUSTRY VETERAN

Edward J. Swenson is senior vice president of research and development at Electro Scientific Industries (ESI), which is headquartered in Por tland, Ore. He joined the company after receiving his BS in mathematic s and physics from Pacific University in 1960, and six years later ear ned a master's in electrical engineering from Oregon State University. A senior member of IEEE and active in a number of other technical soc ieties, he has published numerous papers, is a popular invited speaker and has chaired a number of technical conferences. ESI is a leading p rovider of integrated laser systems for electronics manufacturing. Its five core businesses are laser trimming of resistors and surface-moun t capacitors and inductors, laser memory repair, chip component test a nd termination, laser micro-via drilling and vision systems. Sales in fiscal 1998 were $230 million, approximately 60 percent of which were overseas. ESI has acquired a number of companies, including Chicago La ser Systems, XRL, Intelledex, Cybernetics, Dynamotin, Chip Star and, m ost recently, Applied Intelligence Systems. In addition to its headqua rters in Portland, it has manufacturing facilities in Ann Arbor, Mich. , and Escondido, Calif. Milton Chang is a founder of New Focus and Foc used Research and sits on the boards of Arcturus Engineering, Euphonix , Gadzoox Networks, Iridex, Lightwave Electronics, New Focus, Optical Micro-Machines and Rochester Photonics. He is a fellow of OSA, and ser ves on the NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology and on the b oard of governors of IEEE/LEOS. He welcomes your comments and can be r eached at mmtchang@newfocus.com. Other business and management article s he has written can be found at http://www.newfocus.com.