Anh Hoang visits Medworks!
Anh Hoang, CEO of Convergent Laser Technologies, dropped in to the Medworks office for a visit. We love being able to meet up with representatives from the companies we work with. Anh in particular always has amazing stories to share, so we took the opportunity to talk to him more about his history, as well as the history of Convergent Laser Technologies.
Anh was born in Vietnam at a time when it was separated as North and South Vietnam He lived there through the Vietnam War. After graduating in South Vietnam from the University of Saigon with a B.S. in Oceanography, he fled Vietnam in 1981 along with many other “boat people,” and arrived in the United States in 1982.
Being unfamiliar with the US, but knowing that “Oklahoma is OK,” he settled there and began working at an industrial bakery plant in Oklahoma City. He told us that he quickly became a“professional at perfecting donuts in bulk quantities,” and that laser development never crossed his mind at this time. However, after a year and a half, he returned to studying physics at Oklahoma City University, and then graduate school at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
In the late 1980s, he began his career in laser development with Laser Sonics, Milpitas, CA where he began working with Nd:YAG and CO2 lasers researching laser-tissue interaction. Pursuing an interest in light and tissue interactions, he joined Xintec (now Convergent Laser Technologies) in Alameda, CA in the early 1990s.
In May 2016, Dr. Marilyn M. Chou, Ph.D., CEO, retired, making Anh the CEO of Convergent Laser Technologies. Speaking of this transition, Anh noted “I never expected to become CEO of Convergent, but the opportunity to engage in a new challenge at a company whose works that I really believe in is a major factor in accepting the responsibility.”
Convergent continues to invest in product R&D and clinical applications, specifically laser wavelengths and sensors which provide surgeons with an effective tool to achieve speedy procedures and the best patient outcomes. Convergent has since expanded internationally with plans for continued growth in the future, and Medworks is proud to be a part of that growth.