Team

Natalie Cusat serves as Director of Finance at Avo, managing the day-to-day financial operations of the company and related financial reporting & analysis.  She began her career in public accounting and has amassed diverse experience over her nearly 2 decades in the field.  She has held positions in accounting, finance, internal & external audit, and consulting, over a wide array of industries including non-profit healthcare & retail. Most recently Natalie was a Finance Manager at a publicly traded landscape services company with $3B in revenues, serving as the primary source of executive support on financial performance & analysis.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting with a Spanish minor from Widener University, and is a licensed CPA in the state of Pennsylvania.  In her spare time, she is a Certified Group Exercise Instructor and enjoys spending time with her daughter & husband.

Alison Lang leads Avo Photonics in HR operational and organizational effectiveness, employee relations, benefits management, and talent acquisition. She is a business leader who uses her strategic experience to provide solutions to complex organizational issues, and is experienced in implementing Human Resources' best practices to drive growth. 

Prior to joining Avo in 2023, Ms. Lang was leading HR strategy in varying industries such as defense and space, environmental engineering, and the food industry; and she has served as an HR leader specifically supporting engineering operations for over 10 years. Under her leadership, Avo’s staff has grown by more than 60%.

Ms. Lang’s certifications include PHR and SHRM-CP. She earned a Professional in Human Resource Management certificate from Villanova University, as well as a Masters of Science in Organizational Management from Misericordia University. When she is not leading HR initiatives at Avo, she can be found enjoying the outdoors and spending time with her family.

A longtime Avo employee with 23 years of experience in the photonics industry, Steven Leffler manages engineering for sustained production of complex systems. In his time at Avo he has been involved in the development and production of many devices including tunable lasers, satellite signalling systems and instruments, fiberoptic communications hardware, sensors, and spectrometers.

Before joining Avo, Mr. Leffler worked in tunable laser research and development at Princeton Optronics. He has a Master's degree in physics, specializing in laser physics, from the University of British Columbia (Canada), and a Bachelor's degree in physics from Western University (Canada).

With 17 years of operations and program management experience, Dr. Sven Mahnkopf serves as Director of Product Development at Avo Photonics. Dr. Mahnkopf has designed and produced edge and vertical cavity surface emitting laser devices, photodetector arrays, active optical benches, and SERS substrates. He has a strong background in laser physics, photonic crystal metamaterials, and plasmonic bandgap structures. Dr. Mahnkopf has authored or coauthored 4 patents, one book chapter, and more than 20 optoelectronic technical papers including 7 invited papers. He has served as session chair at OSA FiO.

Prior to joining Avo, Dr. Mahnkopf worked at Infineon Technologies (Singapore), Mesophotonics Ltd. (Southampton, UK), and Opticomp Corporation. Dr. Mahnkopf received a Fulbright scholarship in 1996 and holds a doctorate degree in Physics from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (Würzburg, Germany).

As an optical engineer at Avo, Timothy McDaniel manages high volume production programs, advises opto-mechanical design; and develops opto-mechanical processes, fixturing, and prototypes.

Prior to joining Avo, Mr. McDaniel completed a Master’s degree in Physics from San Diego State University and a secondary Master’s in Optics from The College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida—with research focuses on femtosecond laser development and the fabrication of micro-structures in UV-fused sicilia using optical femtosecond pulses. Mr. McDaniel earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

As Director of Manufacturing, Dan Riben oversees and manages high volume optical production at Avo Photonics, ensuring safety, production, quality, and customer fulfillment. He was brought to Avo in June 2023 to play a key role in growing the business from a workforce of 250 staff to nearly 400.

Mr. Riben leads with 30 years of experience in manufacturing, operations, and dynamic leadership of scaling teams, including 10 years of overseeing optical management and materials at JDS Uniphase. Exposed to the industry from an early age, he can claim experience in electronics manufacturing dating back to his days helping his family business as a teenager.

Mr. Riben obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric and Communication from the University of Pittsburgh, and he earned an Executive Development Leadership and Management Certificate from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Champion.

As Director of Supply Chain, Kerry Scott oversees logistics, finance, and material planning for Avo’s largest customer programs. Ms. Scott joined Avo Photonics in 2011 as Procurement Manager. Since then, she has helped the company grow from a small operation of 30 employees, to a global organization with a workforce that has grown tenfold, becoming a director in 2024. Ms. Scott earned a degree in Finance from Drexel University, and before joining Avo worked as a Senior Analyst at Comcast.

Ian Trauffer became the Director of Process Engineering in 2024, managing the development of products through processes such as die bonding, wire bonding, seam sealing, and optical alignment. He also manages equipment maintenance and calibration, as well as software development and automation. Mr. Trauffer joined Avo Photonics in 2018 as a Junior Process Engineer. The first major employer of his professional career, Avo has seen him hold many evolving responsibilities, helping scale optical programs from prototype to production, fueling the company's growth.

Mr. Trauffer’s undergraduate physics work included optical experimentation and analysis on exciton diffusion through aromatic hydrocarbons. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University, where he studied Physics and Computer Science.

Mr. Khoa Van leads and manages high-volume optical production, ensures production quality, and fulfills commitments to the customer. His career at Avo began as a Process Engineer back in 2015. He is now the Director of Materials after demonstrating a talent for managing scalable production. He also plays a key role in implementing the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for the company. Mr. Van obtained Bachelor’s and Master's degrees in Chemical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, as well as  MBA at Penn State.