Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Sumner.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
In all honesty, I never wanted to work at Opto-Line International. As a kid I spent some summers working in the lab, performing monotonous work that made very little sense to me. Every so often I was asked if I had any interest in the business and my answer was always an emphatic no! Fast forward 25 years and I found myself looking for career change. I’d been a project manager at several different software companies for over a decade and was truly in need of a change. My father, John, was now part owner of Opto-Line and looking for an exit plan as he neared retirement.
It was a leap of faith for both of us, but we took it.
Almost 4 years later and it’s been a very successful transition. As the chief operating officer of this small company, I’ve had the opportunity to run the business and wear many different hats. From sales and marketing to human resources and lab work, I’ve experienced almost every facet of our business with a hands on perspective.
Today, Opto-Line is growing and sales continue to climb. More importantly, I’ve helped provide John with an opportunity to retire soon and reap the benefits of his many years of dedication to the company. I’ve also ensured the future jobs of our employees, our #1 asset, many who have been with Opto-Line for over 20 years.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
One of the biggest challenges was transferring 50 years of John’s experience and knowledge to me. While my project management background has been extremely helpful, it did very little in terms of precision optical patterning! It’s been a gradual process that requires time, patience, and real life failures and successes. I think this was John’s biggest initial hang-up with bringing me on board, but I’m hopeful that I’ve proven otherwise.
Overall this has been a fairly smooth road considering I pulled a 180° career change. Working with your father isn’t always the easiest, but in the long run I hope that we’ll both look back on this as a great experience that we shared.
Please tell us about Opto-Line International, Inc..
Opto-Line International provides custom precision optical patterning solutions to many different industries including aerospace, medical, defense, science, and optometry. We deal with custom patterns that are often measured in microns (one thousandth of a millimeter) and only viewable under high magnification. The patterns are typically made using a process called photolithography followed by a thin film deposition of a specified material, most often chrome, gold or aluminum. It’s the same process my father John used when he was 20 years old. Opto-Line has refined various processes over the years, but it’s mostly unchanged. The precision of the pattern features is incredible and our lab technicians’ abilities are proven over and over with our repeat customers.
The patterned optics are used in so many different applications over a very wide spectrum of industries. We don’t always know the end use or end customer, but many of our parts are vital to satellites, endoscopes, defense range finders, metrology systems, etc. Our customers are so broad and varied – We had a recent job in which we patterned very thin glass in our evaporated gold. The glass was diced into extremely small squares and our customer, a scientist, placed these under the skulls of fruit flies. He was then able to track and monitor brain activity. Who knew!
What sets Opto-Line apart from others is our willingness and ability to take on extremely difficult and unorthodox projects that require us to think out of the box and come up with new ways of processing. Our dedication to our customers and our quality is what has kept Opto-Line in business for so many years.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.opto-line.com
- Phone: 1-978-658-7255
- Email: psumner@opto-line.com
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
