Precision Optics Corporation, Inc. announced the appointment of Mahesh Lawande, as the company's chief operating officer effective April 24, 2023. In the newly created role, Lawande will lead Precision Optics operations team, including its sales & marketing, production and engineering activities at its facilities in Massachusetts, Maine and Texas. The creation of the newly appointed chief operating officer position was necessitated by Precision Optics' rapid growth over the past few years, including 47% growth in revenues during fiscal 2022 and 76% growth during the first half of fiscal 2023.

This growth has been driven by the acquisitions of Ross Optical and Lighthouse Imaging, and by the transition of a number of development pipeline programs to commercial production. Mahesh Lawande has over twenty-five years' experience scaling operations and delivering efficient growth for companies through operations excellence and lean manufacturing leadership. From 1995 through 2019, Lawande held various operations and engineering roles with Siemens and Draeger, most recently as Senior Director of Supply Chain Operations in North America for Draeger Medical Systems, Inc., a multi-billion-dollar medical device and industrial safety company.

Recently, Lawande was Director of Operations for the Peabody, MA headquarters site at Analogic Corporation, a leading global manufacturer of life-saving medical and aviation security imaging systems; and Vice President – Manufacturing & Operations at Third Pole Therapeutics, a developer of cardio-pulmonary therapies. He has an MBA in Corporate Entrepreneurship and Strategy from F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, and a Bachelor of Engineering – Electronics and Telecommunications from Goa University in Goa, India.