Executive Team


Kensuke Kawai

President and Chief Executive Officer

Kensuke Kawai, President and CEO of AltaSens, is responsible for leading the overall direction of the company. Mr. Kawai brings to AltaSens his experience in the management of global companies over the past 30 years.

In addition to his responsibility as President and CEO of AltaSens, Mr. Kawai also serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and the General Executive of Strategic Research and Development Division of JVC KENWOOD Corporation. Prior to joining JVC KENWOOD Corporation in June 2011, he was with Toshiba System Technology as President and CEO for three years after leaving the Toshiba Corporation. Mr. Kawai originally joined the Toshiba Corporation in 1974 and was critically involved in major projects including the development of a power plant computerized automation system and the creation of a digital training simulator for nuclear power plants. He was also the project director of a combined cycle and desalination project in the Middle East.

Mr. Kensuke Kawai received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in instrumentation engineering from Keio University, Kanagawa, Japan, in 1972 and 1974, respectively. Mr. Kawai is a Fellow of IEEE, Master Black Belt of Six Sigma. He also contributed as an IFAC chairperson of Human Machine Systems Committee, and as an editor of IFAC Control Engineering Practice (CEP).


Yutaka (Jake) Onodera

Executive Vice President and Acting Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Onodera has nearly 30 years of experience working at JVC and JVC KENWOOD Corporation. He has worked for the consumer electronics product planning, new business development, and IP licensing departments. Additionally, Mr. Onodera worked at the JVC Americas Corporate office in Wayne, NJ, as General Manager of the Techno-Marketing Department, where he was in charge of technical marketing, safety and environmental issue. His most recent title before joining AltaSens was Senior Specialist of Strategic R&D Department of JVC KENWOOD Corp.

Mr. Onodera holds a B.S. in Physics from Saitama University in Japan.


Lester Kozlowski

Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Lester Kozlowski is founder and Chief Technology Officer of AltaSens. He leads research activities, including pixel and sensor design as well as customization of silicon fabrication for CMOS imaging sensors. Mr. Kozlowski has more than 27 years of experience in sensor and imaging technologies. He has developed numerous projects with CMOS and CCD sensors for commercial and aerospace applications.

Prior to the formation of AltaSens, Mr. Kozlowski was Chief Technologist at Rockwell Scientific. Earlier, Mr. Kozlowski developed hybrid focal plane arrays at Hughes Aircraft.

Mr. Kozlowski holds 25 patents and has contributed to over 150 technical publications. He is a member of SPIE and SMPTE, and is a senior member of IEEE. Mr. Kozlowski holds BS and MS degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago.


Clint Elsemore

Chief Financial Officer

Clint Elsemore is Chief Financial Officer at AltaSens and manages the finance and accounting departments. He is responsible for overseeing the company’s financial results and ensuring fiscal responsibility. Mr. Elsemore has more than ten years of experience in the finance and public accounting fields.

Prior to AltaSens, Mr. Elsemore worked at Rockwell Scientific. He was in charge of all financial aspects of Rockwell Scientific Licensing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rockwell Scientific.

Mr. Elsemore received a BS in Accounting at California Lutheran University, and holds an MBA from Pepperdine University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).


Henry Lin

Vice President of Production

Henry Lin, AltaSens’ Vice President of Production, is responsible for directing process, assembly, testing, and product engineering, as well as overseeing production control management. Mr. Lin has 18 years of experience in the field of semiconductor manufacturing and supply chain management. Mr. Lin brings in-depth knowledge of semiconductor and image-sensor technology to his position.

Prior to AltaSens, Mr. Lin was Director of Operations at IC-Media, where he managed the production team. He also was also in charge of customer sales and technical support at UMC-USA for eight years.

Mr. Lin holds an MSEE from Washington University in St. Louis.


Giuseppe Rossi, Ph.D.

Vice President of Enterprise Business

Giuseppe Rossi is the Vice President of Enterprise Business at AltaSens. He directs marketing and sales activities and leads product development and application engineering. Dr. Rossi also manages relations with international strategic partners and engagements with key customers. With 13 years of experience in the field of CMOS imaging technology for commercial applications, he has in-depth knowledge of customer requirements and market trends.

Since AltaSens’ inception, Dr. Rossi has held executive positions in the field of engineering, technology, and technical marketing. Prior to joining AltaSens, he was with Rockwell Scientific, Micron Imaging (now Aptina), and Photobit corporations, where he led various image sensor projects, including low-cost sensors for mobile applications, which sold more than 50 million units, and award-winning sensors for cinematography applications.

Dr. Rossi has more than 40 patents in the field of imaging. He received his BSEE and MSEE from Politecnico di Milan, Milano, Italy and his Ph.D. in Physics from Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France. He was also a visiting scientist at Princeton University and a research associate at Cornell University.

Dr. Rossi is currently on leave.


Manjunath Bhat

Vice President of Engineering

As the Vice President of Engineering, Manjunath Bhat manages all the Engineering activities at AltaSens. He is responsible for design and development of AltaSens’ products. Mr. Bhat has more than 11 years of experience working with CMOS image sensors and related image-processing products.

Mr. Bhat holds a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, MS in Computer Science from University of California, Santa Barbara, and MBA from University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Business.


Emanuele Mandelli, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President of Technology and Advanced Research

As Executive Vice President of Technology and Advanced Research, Emanuele Mandelli is responsible for the development of the next generation of sensors and products, including new pixel designs and concepts, innovative readout architectures, and advanced camera systems. He has over 20 years of experience in designing low-noise readout circuits for imaging and radiation detectors.

Prior to joining AltaSens, Dr. Mandelli worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, developing ASICs for medical imaging, space applications, and high energy physics. He started his research career at Pavia’s University, where he got his MS and Ph.D. degrees. Emanuele Mandelli is an alumnus of the Collegio Ghisliseri and was an officer of the Italian Air Forces. He has authored and co-authored over twenty papers and two patents. He is currently a reviewer for the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging conferences.


Darren Paulson

Vice President of Quality Assurance

Darren Paulson is the Vice President of Quality Assurance at AltaSens and manages all quality functions, including Quality Control, Quality Engineering, Supply Chain Quality, and Inspection and Metrology. He also works closely with AltaSens’ suppliers to ensure the delivery of the highest quality products to final customers.

Mr. Paulson has over 25 years of experience in the field of quality assurance. Prior to joining AltaSens, he held several management positions at Teledyne Sensors and Imaging, Litton, Northrop Grumman, and Rockwell Scientific. He has been in charge of quality assurance organizations in various commercial and aerospace technologies.

Mr. Paulson is Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma Certified, has held numerous Instructor certifications in high reliability from NASA, U.S. Navy, and DOD. He is an active member of the American Society of Quality.


David Standley, Ph.D.

Chief Scientist

As Chief Scientist at AltaSens, Dr. Standley performs R&D for the company's future products. He joined the company as a Senior Analog Design Engineer, and later became the leader of the analog design group, working on a variety of design projects and mentoring junior staff members. He has over 20 years of imaging device design experience.

Dr. Standley earned a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in Electrical Engineering. He worked at Rockwell Science Center in Thousand Oaks, CA, developing smart image sensors for machine vision applications, as well as circuits for high-performance CMOS image sensors. Then he was a founding employee and the lead designer at Biomorphic VLSI, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, directing the designs of several CMOS image sensor products for commercial applications such as cell phones and DSCs, as well as mentoring new staff members. He was the principal scientist at Biomorphic before joining AltaSens.

Dr. Standley has several publications and 12 patents, and is an IEEE Senior Member.