LED company Lunera Lighting, Inc. has announced that former Hewlett Packard and Lumileds executive, Karen Owyeung, has joined Lunera as its new CEO. Owyeung brings with her nearly 20 years of marketing, operations, and general management experience in the LED industry.
Owyeung began her career in LED technology at Hewlett Packard’s Optoelectronics Division. She held executive management positions in marketing and worldwide manufacturing operations prior to becoming the general manager of the division, which she successfully grew into a $500M business providing employment for 2,000 people. While at HP, she worked with industry visionaries including Roland Haitz, famed for Haitz’s Law, to identify the opportunity for LED technology into commercial and residential lighting. Owyeung also was the architect behind the expanded joint venture of HP’s solid-state lighting division with Philips Lighting to form Lumileds, a leader in today’s LED lighting market.
Owyeung served on the Lumileds board of directors and was named the first CEO of the expanded joint venture. Karen also served on the advisory board for Bridgelux, a Silicon Valley LED technology company. She holds a BSEE from Vanderbilt University and has completed advanced studies at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
“LED technology has evolved to a performance and price point that now positions it as superior alternative to the currently ubiquitous fluorescent technology commonly used in general lighting applications in commercial buildings,” she says. “It’s truly an exciting opportunity to lead a team with the extraordinary vision, talent, and passion to drive this technology into an entirely new market and deliver on its promise to increase building performance by reducing operating costs while significantly improving the quality of light provided to the occupants of the space.”
