Arizona Technology Council Adds Critical Optics and Workplace Technology Expertise to its Board

Edmund Optics' Schwertz and Immedia Integrated Technologies' Blair Enhance the Council's Board With Experience In Key Industries

PHOENIX - April 26, 2024 - PRLog -- The Arizona Technology Council today announced it has appointed Katie Schwertz, senior engineering manager, Edmund Optics, and Matt Blair, president and co-owner, Immedia Integrated Technologies, to its board of directors. Schwartz and Blair were unanimously elected to serve three-year terms each at the Council's quarterly board meeting held on April 25.

"It is an honor to announce the addition of Katie and Matt to our board of directors," said Steven G. Zylstra, president and CEO of the Council and SciTech Institute. "These two technology leaders have been critical to Arizona's innovation ecosystem for many years and will drastically enhance our mission to serve our members and the fast-growing technology sector in the state."

The board of directors serves an advisory and fiduciary role by representing the interests of the state's technology industries in the Council's strategic planning and ongoing operations. The current board includes 31 members representing a diverse set of organizations.

Schwertz and Blair bring more than 30 years of combined experience in optics, cybersecurity, manufacturing, sales and workplace technologies. Their respective bios are:

Katie Schwertz, senior engineering manager, Edmund Optics

Schwertz is a senior engineering manager at Edmund Optics in Tucson, where she is responsible for managing corporate-wide design and analysis needs for existing products and new product development.

She received her bachelor of science in optics from the University of Rochester Institute of Optics and master of science in optical sciences from The University of Arizona Wyant College of Optical Sciences. She has more than a decade of applied industry experience in optical and optomechanical design and is recognized as an industry leader.

Schwertz is a co-author of two books, the SPIE Field Guide to Optomechanical Design and Analysis (2012) and Photonics Rules of Thumb, 3rd ed. (2020). She is a senior member of SPIE and Optica and recently served on the SPIE board of directors. She is also the 2024 recipient of the SPIE President's Award, which recognizes unique and meritorious service of outstanding benefit to the Society and is an active member of the Council's Optics Valley Committee.

Matt Blair, president and co-owner, Immedia Integrated Technologies

Blair serves as president and co-owner at Immedia Integrated Technologies and the Southwest Experience Center in Scottsdale. His focus is improving processes, implementing the corporate mission of excellence in service and bettering the client experience through on-time delivery, quality installation and continuous communication. Prior to Immedia, he was CEO of a manufacturing firm where he focused on turnaround strategies and personnel management.

He gained business management and engineering experience from working at large corporations like General Motors, Siemens and Herman -Knoll. Blair also has experience in the construction industry and ran his own general contracting firm in Michigan. He has served as president of the Arizona Council of Engineering and Scientific Associations and Society of Manufacturing Engineers, participated in sub-committees for the Arizona Commerce Authority, and currently serves on the advisory board of the Scottsdale/Paradise Valley YMCA and as a director for the Valley of the Sun YMCA. He has been a member of the Arizona Technology Council since moving to Arizona in 2010.

A graduate of GMI Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University), where he earned his bachelor's degree in manufacturing systems engineering, Blair also earned his master of science in administration from Central Michigan University. An avid outdoorsman, Blair enjoys spending time in Northern Arizona hiking, golfing and snowboarding around his cabin in Munds Park with family and friends. He has three adult children who all live in Arizona.

Companies represented on the Arizona Technology Council board of directors include:

Arizona Commerce Authority; AccountabilIT; Alerion Capital Group; Alliance Bank of Arizona; American Express; Arizona Public Service; Arizona Western College; Arizona State University; Avnet; Ballard Spahr; Benchmark; City of Hope; Edmund Optics; Ernst & Young; Honeywell Aerospace; IBM; ILLUME Advising; Insight; Immedia; Intel; Iron Mountain; KEO Marketing Inc.; MSS Technologies; PayPal; Quarles & Brady; Raytheon; Solugenix; The RFP Succes Company; Tech Parks Arizona, The University of Arizona; Translational Genomics Research Institute; and University of Advancing Technology