ON Partners Recruits CEO for Polaris Electro-Optics
October 24, 2025 – ON Partners’ Bryan Buck and Alex Pelak recently placed Morten Nissov as the new CEO of Polaris Electro-Optics, a developer of next-generation optical modulators for bandwidth- and power-constrained interconnects. The company recently closed its Series A funding round, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT). KDT is the investment arm of Koch and is renowned for supporting high-growth companies that disrupt current market alternatives with demonstrated technology.
“We are excited to back Polaris and welcome Morten as new CEO,” said Isaac Sigron, managing director at KDT Israel, an affiliate of KDT. “Unlike other solutions, Polaris’s ferroelectric material was engineered from the ground up for performance and reliability, giving it a unique edge in the race to 400 Gbps per lane and beyond. By leveraging existing silicon photonics infrastructure instead of reinventing the stack, Polaris shortens time to scale while reducing risk and cost. With Morten onboard, the company has the right leadership in place and is ready to transition from R&D to volume production and become a foundational player in optical interconnects.”
Dr. Nissov brings over 25 years of experience leading global semiconductor and photonics businesses, with a strong track record in scaling technologies into commercial success. He most recently served as the VP of sales and business development at Genuine Optics and prior to that, he held executive roles at Lumentum and Oclaro, spanning go-to-market execution, operations, and international scaling. He joins Polaris to lead its transition from advanced R&D to full-scale product deployment, bringing his deep domain expertise and vast industry network critical to this next phase.
“I’m thrilled to join Polaris as its newly appointed CEO,” said Dr. Nissov. “Polaris has built a foundation of truly disruptive photonic technology. We are tackling one of the largest challenges in compute infrastructure—how to move more data, faster, and with less power. The platform delivers the speed, scale, and efficiency next-generation infrastructure demands, while leveraging standard silicon photonics tools for a faster, lower-risk path to volume. With the backing of KDT and our other investment partners, and the strength of our world-class team, we’re focused on execution, bringing our first products to market and enabling the next generation of optical interconnects.”
Polaris is a pioneering photonics company developing ultra-high bandwidth, low-power, and highly linear optical modulators for data centers, HPC, and AI/ML systems. Koch Disruptive Technologies is a venture capital firm partnering with principled entrepreneurs who are building high-growth companies that have the potential to transform industries. KDT is a Koch company, one of the largest privately held companies in the world, with annual revenues that have exceeded $125 billion and operations in more than 50 countries.
With a primary focus on technology, consumer, industrial, and the life science sectors, ON Partners recruits C-level and board talent for public and private companies, as well as venture capital and private equity firms. Founded in 2006, the firm’s consultants work from offices in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA; Minneapolis, MN; San Francisco; and New York. ON Partners was named one of the fastest growing search firms this year by Hunt Scanlon Media. The firm is now ranked as one of the 20 largest search firms in the nation.
Mr. Buck specializes in enterprise technology, consumer products and services, and automotive technology sectors. He serves public corporations as well as the portfolio companies of leading PE and VC firms.
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As a consultant, Mr. Pelak has a strong focus in technology, aerospace and defense, and industrial. His recent work includes senior-level placements for lidar, photonics, semiconductor, advanced materials, and consumer electronics clients.
Power Integrations Search
ON Partners recently assisted in the recruitment of Jennifer Lloyd as the new CEO of NASDAQ-traded Power Integrations in San Jose, CA. Partners Tim Conti, Mike Lynch, and Cher Murphy led the assignment. She succeeds Balu Balakrishnan, who has served as CEO since 2002. A former member of Power Integrations’ board of directors, Dr. Lloyd has been reappointed to the company’s board.
ON Partners Recruits CEO for Insurcomm
Partners Baillie Parker and Seth Harris, along with consultant Alex Peters of ON Partners have assisted in the recruitment of Kelly Brewer as the new CEO of Insurcomm in Portsmouth, NH. She succeeds Doug Indelicato, who will step into a pivotal role leading Insurcomm’s sales and marketing efforts. “We are thrilled to welcome Kelly Brewer to the Insurcomm team,” said Mr. Indelicato. “Her leadership and vision will be instrumental in guiding Insurcomm through its next phase of growth and innovation. Insurcomm’s success is directly attributed to our customers and the dedication of our employees, which is where I’m excited to focus my energy. This is an exciting time for Insurcomm, and I look forward to working alongside Kelly to continue our momentum.”
“We are thrilled that Jen Lloyd will be our next CEO,” said Mr. Balakrishnan. Throughout her distinguished career at Analog Devices, she has proven her ability to drive innovation, deliver new products to the market and achieve profitable growth. Her deep knowledge of power products and technologies and her familiarity with our company will allow her to hit the ground running. I am confident that she is the right leader to take Power Integrations to the next level.”
Since 1997, Dr. Lloyd has served in a succession of increasingly senior engineering and business roles at Analog Devices, Inc., a global semiconductor leader. She has led multiple $1B+ businesses spanning various technologies and end markets. Most recently, Dr. Lloyd was corporate vice president leading the company’s multi-market power business unit, responsible for product, strategy and P&L with leadership of a large global team.
Related: ON Partners Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for StarCompliance
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
