Irvine Sensors appointed VP Peter Kenefick as GM of the firm's newly formed Thermal Imaging Division. According to John Carson, President and CEO of Irvine, "Pete is perfect for this job because of his business and program management credentials and because he nurtured our thermal imaging products from their infancy to the present success of Clip-On Thermal Imager (COTI). We expect deliveries of our thermal imaging products, particularly COTIs, to ramp from their current roughly 100 units per month to more than 2,000 units per month over the next two years, necessitating the creation of a separate, dedicated division of the company."
Prior to this appointment, Kenefick served as Irvine's VP of EO Product Operations. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering with an Economics Minor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1981. He has been employed by the aerospace industry since graduating, with increasing levels of responsibility at Northrop Corporation, TRW, Hughes, OCA Applied Optics, Corning Corporation, BF Goodrich Aerospace, Orbital Sciences Corporation, and United Technologies - Hamilton Sunstrand prior to joining Irvine in 2005.
Near-term growth in Irvine's thermal imaging product deliveries is expected to be stimulated by a U.S. Navy COTI competitive procurement, which was recently won by a team in which Irvine is the electronic core supplier. This award, however, represents a very small fraction of the total potential military market over the next several years, which is the basis for the formation of the new division. Irvine's thermal imaging products are supported by a growing portfolio of intellectual property.