Adlens focuses on growth in 2016

Five new executives at Adlens have been tasked with building the international adjustable-focus eyewear business.

Last year, the company launched its ‘AdlensFocuss’ prescription spectacles, the first eyewear to feature ‘variable power optics’ (VPO), in the US. The UK-based company develops its adjustable-focus technologies in Oxford, after being founded by James Chen in 2005.

In what OT has been told is “growing international demand for its products,” Adlens said it has appointed Sue Creek as vice president of sales and training, alongside new senior vice president of VPO, David Eichelberger. David Hunt is stepping into the directorship of VPO customer success and operations.

Joining them is James Methven, Adlens’ new vice president of marketing, and Mara Nieuwsma, newly-appointed vice president of global business development.

The company’s chief executive, Michael Ferrara, said: “2016 is going to be an extremely busy year for Adlens and it is important for us to start the year with the right organisational structure, driven by exceptional and experienced talent, in place.”

Adlens’ spectacles adjust their focus at the turn of a dial at or in the sides of the eyewear. The technology works by sliding two wave-shaped plates over each other, changing the power of the lens.

Adjustable-focus eyewear was the subject of a House of Lords debate on Monday (8 February). Lord Newby, the Liberal Democrat life peer, asked the Government if it will “allow certain adjustable-focus eyewear to be sold over-the-counter as is already the case with reading glasses.” 

Lord Prior, responding on behalf of the Government, stated that “this is something we would do only after very careful consideration, and if we were confident that the proposal could stand parliamentary scrutiny. So if we were to take this forward at all, an independent review of some kind would be a requirement.”