POET Technologies Appoints Dr. Bardia Pezeshki and Jean F. Rankin to Board of Directors as Long-serving Director, Jean-Louis Malinge Resigns

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TORONTO, Aug. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — POET Technologies Inc. (“POET” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: POET), the designer and developer of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), light sources and optical modules for the AI and data center markets, today announced the appointments of Dr. Bardia Pezeshki and Jean F. Rankin to its Board of Directors, effective August 1, 2026. The new directors will serve until the Company’s next annual meeting of shareholders or until their successors are duly elected or appointed. In addition, the Company accepted the resignation, for personal reasons, of Jean-Louis Malinge, who has served on the board of POET Technologies since 2017. Mr. Malinge’s resignation was effective August 1, 2026.

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Dr. Pezeshki is a technology executive, entrepreneur and recognized innovator in optical communications, semiconductor devices and advanced interconnect technologies. Most recently, he served as Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Avicena Tech, where he pioneered micro-LED-based optical interconnect solutions for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing systems. He previously founded and led Kaiam Corporation and Santur Corporation, commercializing advanced optical transceivers and tunable laser technologies for data center and telecommunications applications. Earlier in his career, Dr. Pezeshki held senior research and development positions at SDL Inc. and IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Harvey Mudd College.

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Ms. Rankin is an experienced public company director and former senior legal executive with extensive expertise in corporate governance, intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation and executive compensation. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of InterDigital, Inc., where she chairs the Compensation Committee and is a member of the Nominating and Governance Committee. She previously served on the Board of Directors of Resonant, Inc., including as Chair of its Compensation Committee and as a member of its Audit and Nominating and Governance Committees. Ms. Rankin also served as Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of LSI Corporation and Agere Systems Inc., following senior legal roles at Lucent Technologies and AT&T. She holds a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction from the University of Virginia.

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POET’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Bardia and Jean to POET’s Board of Directors. Bardia brings exceptional technical and commercial expertise in photonics, optical interconnects and semiconductor innovation, together with a proven record of building and scaling technology businesses. Jean brings extensive public company, legal and governance experience, including significant expertise in intellectual property, strategic transactions and executive oversight. Their complementary experience will be highly valuable as POET advances the commercialization of its technology and expands its position in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence and data center markets.”

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Dr. Venkatesan continued, “On behalf of the Company and myself, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Jean-Louis for his tireless service on our board of directors over the past nine years. As an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, Jean-Louis understood better than most the challenges of founding a company, turning an idea into new technology, and maintaining a singular vision of what that company could become. Our board, management team, employees, shareholders and I owe him a profound debt of gratitude for helping make POET the company it is today.”