BARRINGTON, NJ-Edmund Optics announces that Dr. Thomas Kessler will advance to executive vice president, gobal sales, effective February 1, 2011, following the planned retirement of Allan Kreutzer at the end of January.

Dr. Kessler has been responsible for all of Edmund Optics' European sales and distribution operations as vice president, European operations, from his office in Karlsruhe, Germany. He will assume the additional responsibilities of managing the company's Americas and Asian sales teams as the company continues to aggressively expand its sales growth and standard product offerings.

"With a current global sales increase of 25%, it will be a very exciting time to be leading the global sales team," Dr. Kessler commented. "I look forward to expanding our operations into new countries while also building our large account customers in our main markets including the United States, Japan and Germany," he said.

As European sales head, "Dr. Kessler has helped guide Edmund Optics to its next platform of growth in serving our European customers," said Robert Edmund, CEO and president of the company. "Dr. Kessler has been responsible for opening additional regional field sales offices throughout Europe to more effectively serve EO customers with both standard catalog products and precision custom optics as part of our objective to serve as the world's preferred supplier of optical components," Mr. Edmund said.

Dr. Kessler joined Edmund Optics two years ago, and most recently served with Schott in Mainz, Germany, as director of product management, sales, marketing and supply chain for Schott's Advanced Optics business.

Dr. Kessler earned his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in physics from J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main.

Allan Kreutzer, an optics industry veteran, will retire in late January after more than 30 years in the optics industry. Kreutzer served a variety of premier optics companies and manufacturers, including Lambda Research and Schott, before joining Edmund Optics. Mr. Kreutzer has been looking forward to enjoying more time with his wife and grandchildren, and hopes to stay active in the optics community and remains passionate about growing the global optics industry.

"Allan has done a tremendous job in developing our global sales team," CEO Robert Edmund notes. "We are thrilled to now be directly engaged with such markets as Taiwan, Italy, and several South American countries, while also accelerating our sales in large markets like China," Mr. Edmund continued. "The global sales team is an impressive group, and we have high expectations for 2011 and 2012," he concluded.