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28 Worcester Business Journal • www.wbjournal.com 25 YEARS: IMPACTFUL COMPANIES CELEBRA TI N G YEARS OF "To foster personal and public self‐reliance and improve the qualit� of life for individuals, families and the communities in which they live." Established in 1969 (as Rural Housing Improvement), RCAP Solutions has been helping individuals, families, communities and small businesses with a wide range of bene�cial ser�ices for almost a half a cent�r�. www.rcapsolutions.org | 800.488.1969 T he 24-year-old IPG Photonics exerts global influence by controlling 80 percent of the world's fiber-laser market. That dominance enables the Oxford-based firm to sell high-powered lasers for less than what it costs com- petitors to make them, while it assumes a notable presence in the Central Massachusetts business scene. CEO Valentin Gapontsev founded IPG in 1990 in the basement of a small lab near Moscow. Then 52, he had just a few thousand dollars in savings and no business experience because private enterprise was outlawed in the former Soviet Union. But what he lacked in money or experience, he made up for in expertise. He had spent a quarter-century as a materials scientist at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, becoming known worldwide for his research into laser materials. That allowed him to spot the potential in lasers based on fiber optics. Gapontsev's quest for new clients brought him to the U.S. — and Central Massachusetts — where he landed his first successful U.S. contract with Galileo, a fiber-optic equipment maker in Sturbridge. However, Galileo ceased operations and laid off workers. Gapontsev needed to successfully establish a physical presence in the U.S. — necessary for doing business with companies that work on government contracts. So he hired several ex-Galileo workers and launched IPG's American operations in 1998 with 17 employees. Most of them are still with the company. In 2000, IPG received its first round of private investment. As a condition of that investment — which included a sale of 8 percent of the company for $100 million — IPG moved its ownership and headquarters from Germany to the U.S. Gapontsev took the company public in 2006 to repay his early investors. In 2011, he began work on a 102,000-square-foot expansion in Oxford. That physical growth has been accompanied by payroll growth. IPG's Oxford work- force has more than doubled from 420 in 2010 to more than 900 today. Meanwhile, the company's net sales have grown nearly fourfold, from $186 million in 2009 to $648 million in 2013. A Moscow basement lab served as the start for IPG Photonics and Valentin Gapontsev. IPG Photonics 16