LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- BeamExpress announces the recent appointment of CEO, Jean-Claude Charlier, former executive from Agilent, as well as the achievement of a significant technological milestone in optical components. BeamExpress is focused on the design and manufacturing of next generation optical components targeted at meeting the performance and the cost-effectiveness required by equipment manufacturers of metropolitan optical network systems. The firm was founded in 2001 when it spun out of the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne). Pan-European venture capital firm, Index Ventures, provided the first round of funding and has been actively involved in the development of the company. BeamExpress has developed a unique, proprietary technology based on vertical cavity optics architecture, which makes it possible to manufacture efficient, wavelength-controlled, VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting lasers) capable of emitting at 1550nm and powerful enough to transmit over 80 km for metropolitan network reach. Up to now, only shorter wavelength (850nm and 1310nm) VCSELs have been developed, with their inherent power and distance constraints limiting their use to Local Area Networks (LAN) and very short reach (below 1 km for 850nm and up to 10 km for 1310nm ). BeamExpress' new powerful VCSEL at 1550nm opens up the opportunity to apply the VCSEL technology with its inherent benefits to whole range of distances relevant for the metro market. More recently, BeamExpress has demonstrated fixed wavelengths array and widely tunable VCSELs. These perform similar functions to advanced tunable lasers traditionally used in long haul application, but at a significantly lower cost, which makes them ideally suited for usage in cost-sensitive METRO applications. Jean-Claude Charlier joined BeamExpress as CEO in April of 2002. Under his leadership, the firm has continued to develop at a rapid pace and has hit key technical milestones. "Jean-Claude has been instrumental in further defining the strategic direction of the company as well as initiating key industrial partnerships," commented Giuseppe Zocco, General Partner of Index Ventures. "Jean-Claude is the right person at the right time for Beam Express and we are extremely pleased to have recruited him for this critical role." BeamExpress Inc.