Walter Burgess, Co-CEO at Power Technology, Inc., is a Central Arkansas native with more than 25 years of experience in the laser and photonics industry. As the manager of both a Sales team and an Engineering team, he uses entrepreneurial skills to shepherd products from the idea stage through commercialization. This includes product ideation, technical direction, product design, overseeing team performance, developing and managing relationships with key customers, managing the sales process from implementation through closing, and P&L responsibility.

As an active community member, he is Chairman of the Arkansas Science & Technology Board. Through this board, Burgess helps entrepreneurs by managing $4.5M annually of state funds that directly help startups and small businesses thrive. Burgess is also the former Chairman of the Arkansas STEM Coalition, a former board member of Little Rock’s Museum of Discovery and a current member of Accelerate Arkansas. He has served on the Dean’s Advisory Boards at both the University of Central Arkansas’ College of Math & Science, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) College of Science.

He presently serves on the Industrial Engineering Advisory Board at UALR. At an industry level, Burgess serves on the Editorial Board of Advisors for two leading laser and photonics publications – Laser Focus World and Photonics Spectra magazine.

Walter is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Forge Institute’s Phoenix Xcelerator, a defense based accelerator.