🔒Editorial: The legacy of Valentin Gapontsev

On Oct. 22, a titan of the Central Massachusetts economy passed away. Valentin Gapontsev, the founder, chairman, and former CEO of Oxford fiber laser manufacturer IPG Photonics, died at age 82, leaving a legacy of scientific exploration, entrepreneurialism, and business success.

Worcester’s only resident billionaire – a designation he was never comfortable with – Gapontsev’s achievements are the things young scientists and startups dream of. You can see that same spirit throughout young companies in the region, as we try to build an ecosystem capable of turning out a company like IPG.

Gapontsev founded IPG’s predecessor company in his native Russia in 1990. Over the course of the next 16 years, which included the move to Oxford, Gapontsev and his team pushed optical fiber laser technology and its many applications onto the world, developing technologies for industries like aerospace and telecommunications. In 2006, the company had its initial public offering on the stock market, raising $90 million. Little did those early investors know that they were strapping themselves to a rocket ship. Within 12 years, IPG would bring in more than $1 billion in annual revenue, be included in the S&P 500, and employ more than 6,000 people. The company’s success has not only generated many high-paying jobs, but produced immense wealth reinvested in our community. In his life, Gapontsev would be the listed inventor on 100+ patents and author 200+ scientific papers, while winning awards like the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Russian Federation National Award in Science and Technology.

Though Gapontsev, who was a very private person, was never involved in the larger Central Mass. business community in the hands-on way Hanover Insurance Group CEO John Roche or UMass Memorial Health CEO Eric Dickson are, he is the type of entrepreneur community development officials hope to foster. While Central Mass. is still in the nascent stages of developing a culture where colleges, incubators, investors, and business fuel an innovation economy, the seeds are here, and the players coming together.

Take, for example, Solvus Global, which is a technology solutions company started by two PhD students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who struck a deal with – among others – IPG Photonics to secure research funding. Now, Solvus has three locations throughout Central Massachusetts, including a 32,000-square-foot Leominster manufacturing center, which opened in October. Other companies like Worcester energy company Battery Resourcers, which also started based on WPI technology, and Devens nuclear research firm Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which was spun out of technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, embody the same spirit as IPG and Gapontsev.

Over the course of 82 years, a young Russian scientist made his way through technological breakthroughs and business development to land his company in Oxford, Massachusetts, and his home in Worcester. It underscores the importance of attracting and welcoming immigrants to the U.S., as a number of our most successful entrepreneurs were born outside the country. While few entrepreneurs will ever become billion-dollar, world-class leaders in their industry, the more young entrepreneurs we can attract and support, the stronger our region’s economy will be.