The Smart Team

After we closed our Series-A round, Our lead investor Ari Newman inspired us with a dedicated blog post. He remarked in it — “I was deeply inspired by the company’s mission, technology, and potential to improve the human condition on a global basis. Yaopeng Zhou and Marc Albanese, co-founders of SVL, had a drive and determination that was (and continues to be) truly special.”

But, Smart Vision Labs would not be where it is now, if it were not for the efforts of a few amazing people, working diligently behind our founders. This following piece is to both thank the amazing people of Smart Vision Labs, and to show the world the diverse team that is propelling the company even more forward.

Lillian Pontius-Goldblatt
Operations Manager
Lilly joined Smart Vision Labs with 8 years of experience running program operations at arts and cultural organizations in Chicago and Philadelphia. She currently oversees business and people operations, from snacks to taxes. She has an undergraduate degree in Fiction Writing from Columbia College in Chicago and is an MBA graduate from New York University.

Jennifer Woods
Customer Success Manager
Queens, NY native Jennifer joins the SVL team as Customer Experience Associate. For the past seven years, she has worked for the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, Oscar Health Insurance and EmblemHealth in Customer Service/Quality Assurance roles. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from the University of Delaware and is also certified to teach English abroad. Outside of work, she enjoys baking, yoga and spending time with her chocolate lab, Sydney.

Vanna Nguyen
Customer Success Associate
Vanna grew up in Wisconsin and received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin — Madison in Community and Environmental Sociology. As a digital health advocate, she’s interested in how the relationship between physician and patient are changing. Shortly after college, she worked at Propeller Health in Madison. After 3 years, she decided to move to New York City where she has joined Smart Vision Labs as the Customer Experience Associate. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering and exploring the great outdoors.

JEFF LIN
SENIOR DESIGNER
Jeff joined Smart Vision Labs as Senior Designer in 2016. He has over 8 years’ experience in web, mobile application, and print design. Jeff has a BFA in New Media Design and Imaging from Rochester Institute of Technology. He has previously worked at Marvel Entertainment, The Daily (News Corp), and Thumbplay (now iHeartRadio/Clear Channel). When he’s not at a computer, he’s active in the car enthusiast community and attends automotive events and gatherings — he loves to take photos of nice cars.

JOHN DOSKOCZYNSKI
DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING
John brings over thirty years of experience in manufacturing and product development to Smart Vision Labs. Whether it’s product packaging, CAD design, 3-D printing, or production-ready machined parts, John takes a thoughtful approach to design for manufacturability. He has a State Journeymanship in Tool and Moldmaking along with studies in Material Science and Machine Tool Technology. When John is not being challenged with aggressive timelines, he can be found in the woods with his mountain bike or looking for his golf ball.

DAVID SHU
DIRECTOR OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
A New York native, David joined the Smart Vision Labs Engineering team in 2016 concentrating on web based technologies and architecture. Even after over 15 years in the IT field, having worked with various technologies across the full stack, he still looks forward to learning new things everyday. When not tackling technical and logical puzzles, you will find David checking on his indoor garden, cooking or wandering aimlessly across the streets of NY.

JENNIFER MELE
DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Jennifer joined Smart Vision Labs as Director of Business Development with 7 years of sales experience in wholesale and SaaS. Jennifer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and Business from Villanova University and an MBA from New York University. In her spare time you can find her running on the West Side Highway or planning a last minute trip.

WILL CRUZ
CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
Will Cruz is a well known change agent who has had great success triggering growth in several notable organizations in the medical device industry. Most recently at Kawasumi Laboratories, a $1B global medical device manufacture, he was recruited to build scale and re-launch a new brand strategy on a global platform. His expertise resulted in top line revenue growth of 4X the industry standard. He is a full time triathlete, having completed 4 full IRON-MAN races and counting. Will is a graduate of Purdue University where he remains an active alumnus.

KACCIE LI, PHD
CHIEF SCIENTIST
Kaccie grew up in Shelton, WA but left town to pick up a couple degrees from Rochester and a PhD from Berkeley. Dr. Li joined Smart Vision Labs in April 2015 as Principal Scientist after grueling stints at Abbott Medical Optics and Brien Holden Vision. He brings deep knowledge in wavefront estimation/control and low-cost optics manufacturing. More importantly, he’s one of the few Asian-American Dutch speakers in the world and can (almost) snatch a 32-kg kettlebell.

JOSEF KATZ
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Josef joined Smart Vision Labs in July of 2016 and servers as the company’s first CMO. He loves a good marketing challenge as much as he enjoys road biking and teaching himself the saxophone. In his 20 plus years of marketing he helped disrupt the education industry and has been called an “original growth hacker.’’ His early teachers will confirm he is an excellent disruptor and a perfect fit for a company disrupting the vision care industry. He is a born and bred New Yorker and earned his BA in Communications and Media from Queens College but hasn’t stopped learning thanks to MOOCS and online education.

MARC ALBANESE
COO & CO-FOUNDER
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and a master’s in electrical engineering from Boston University, Marc worked in various technical, management, and business development roles in the optical and telecom equipment industries. Prior to Smart Vision Labs, he worked in equity research at UBS and Evercore. Marc, a Chartered Financial Analyst, holds an M.B.A. from NYU.

YAOPENG ZHOU, PHD
CEO & CO-FOUNDER
Dr. Yaopeng Zhou is the co-founder and CEO of Smart Vision Labs. Yaopeng invented smartphone-based autorefraction technology to measure refractive errors by taking a picture of the eye. Before co-founding Smart Vision Labs, Yaopeng worked at GE Healthcare and Abbott Labs as an optical engineer. Yaopeng earned his Ph.D from Boston University, and conducted research on retinal imaging and stem cell imaging at Schepens Eye Research Institute and Wellman Center for Photomedicine.

There is an old African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone, If you want to go far, go together”. As we achieve success after success, we will grow bigger, and the team will become stronger. Stay tuned for more news regarding the company!