express our collective confidence this is the right team to lead us through this transition and accelerate value creation for our employees, customers and investors. I would also like to thank Anand for his innumerable contributions as CEO, and for leading Velodyne to where it is today as a publicly traded industry leader. We look forward to his continued support during this transition.”
About Jim Barnhart
Jim Barnhart serves as Chief Operating Officer at Velodyne Lidar, where he is responsible for leading global automated mass manufacturing operations that produce world-class lidar sensors. Jim is a results-delivering executive with a proven record in operations, general management, supply chain, services, manufacturing and engineering. Prior to joining Velodyne, Jim was Senior Vice President, Operations at Nanometrics Inc., a provider of advanced process control solutions. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President, Global Operations at Cymer LLC. Jim’s industry experience also includes operational leadership roles at Applied Materials, Johnson & Johnson and AREVA. He was also an engineering division officer in the U.S. Navy. Jim holds an MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Washington State University’s College of Engineering in Pullman.
About Drew Hamer
Drew Hamer is Chief Financial Officer for Velodyne Lidar, where he works with the leadership team on financial strategy and leads the finance organization with forecasting, budgeting, and accounting. He is a seasoned finance executive with over 25 years of financial leadership experience at public and pre-public technology companies. Working at companies like ON24, Keynote Systems, KnowNow, Intraspect Software, Excite@Home and Sybase, Drew managed investor relations, implemented financial efficiencies, raised capital and oversaw the expansion of financial and business operations throughout the world, both organically and thru acquisitions.
Drew holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree from Binghamton University and a Master of Accounting degree from Florida International University. He is also a member of Financial Executives International, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
About Kathy McBeath
Kathy McBeath is Chief People Officer for Velodyne Lidar. She joined Velodyne Lidar in October 2020 and is responsible for leading the Company’s global HR organization. She is charged with aligning the Company’s valued people resources to its strategic priorities with a strong focus on leadership development, employee engagement and company culture. She is passionate about developing talent and helping employees at all levels reach their potential.
Kathy brings more than two decades of experience as a senior human resources executive in both high tech and medical device industries. She started her career at Hewlett Packard in Finance and later moved over to the HR side. She also spent time at Corsair Gaming, Intuitive Surgical and Nevro, in various HR leadership roles. Kathy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from San Jose State University. In addition, she completed an Executive Leadership program through Stanford University.
About Sinclair Vass
Sinclair Vass currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer at Velodyne Lidar, where he is responsible for driving revenue growth across all the Velodyne markets and geographies. Sinclair Vass is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in telecommunications, consumer electronics, automotive and industrial laser markets.
Prior to joining Velodyne, Mr. Vass was President of the Laser Optics Business Unit at Focuslight Technologies Inc., a China based manufacturer of high-performance laser and optical beam steering solutions. Before his time at Focuslight, Mr. Vass served as Vice President of Sales, Product Management & Customer Service at Viavi Solutions. Throughout his career, Mr. Vass has also held increasingly senior leadership positions at JDS Uniphase, New Focus Inc, Lucent Microelectronics, Hewlett Packard, and Plessey Research Inc. Mr. Vass graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Physics from the University of Edinburgh and holds an MBA from the Open University.
