Meet The Wave Front Technology Team

Asset Publisher

Chris Rich

Chris Rich has over 30 years of technical and business experience in precision optics and optical systems. Under his stewardship, WFT has grown from a two-man operation to over 65 employees focused on innovative products, novel platforms and long-term client relationships that deliver individualized solutions to complex challenges. Technically innovative and highly respected Chris has positioned WFT for the next wave of growth.

Joel Petersen

Since WFT’s founding in 1986, Joel Petersen has guided WFT from being a tool maker to being a fully integrated optical component provider for the security, display, packaging, and lighting markets. Joel developed a proprietary tooling process that serviced the embossing industry. He has built a library of microstructure patterns, aesthetic based for packaging, performance based for lighting as well as custom microstructures for a variety of industries. His passion for creating new designs and dimensional eff­ects is contagious. He leads the Packaging, Lighting, Product Introduction Strategy, and Finance for WFT.

Kent Coulter

Kent Coulter joined WFT in 2020. He has over 25 years of product development and organizational management experience. Kent has led several programs from proof of concept through to commercial production with three winning R&D 100 Awards (2019, 2017 & 2009) as one of the most innovative developments for that year. Kent has sixteen granted US patents and over thirty referred publications ranging in topics from catalysis to plasma physics to nanofunctional surfaces to interference optics.