Peter Lothes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Advancing Eyecare (AEC), North America’s leading provider of ophthalmic instruments, announced today that it has named Peter Lothes as global chief operating officer. Lothes will oversee all operations of Advancing Eyecare’s industry-leading ophthalmic equipment businesses, including Lombart Instrument, Marco Ophthalmic, Innova Medical and Santinelli International. Lothes joins Advancing Eyecare with over 30 years of global leadership experience in vision care, including manufacturing, supply chain and global operations. Most recently, Lothes served as senior vice president, operations and supply chain at EssilorLuxottica of America.

Over the years, he held many positions throughout the EssilorLuxottica group, including president and global CEO of Satisloh Worldwide, president and CEO of Satisloh North America, and vice president of operations, Production Labs of Essilor of America.

Prior to his roles with EssilorLuxottica, Lothes was president of his family business, Select Optical—which was acquired by Essilor in 2004 and became part of the partner lab family—for over 17 years. He is a graduate of Ashland University with a degree in business management and a minor in marketing.

“We are excited to welcome Pete to the Advancing Eyecare family,” Brad Staley, chief executive officer of Advancing Eyecare, said in the announcement. “With his high-integrity leadership, deep industry experience, and extensive track record in developing innovative business strategies to drive growth on a global scale, he is uniquely positioned to help AEC continue to evolve and bring new and innovative solutions to eyecare practitioners around the world.”

“I am incredibly excited to be a part of the Advancing Eyecare team,” Lothes said. “With Advancing Eyecare’s best-in-class companies, superior reputation, and customer-centric technology and service solutions to help improve vision, the groundwork has been set and the company is poised for accelerated growth in North America as well as entry into new markets and geographies. I look forward to being a part of AEC’s bright future.”

Advancing Eyecare is a leading provider in the eyecare instrumentation marketplace established to offer the best products and service solutions in the ophthalmic equipment industry.

In May, Cornell Capital LLC, a private equity firm based in New York and Hong Kong, said it had entered into an agreement to acquire Advancing Eyecare, as VMAIL reported. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed at that time.