Svetlana Samoilova
ROANOKE, Va.—Wearable device maker PogoTec has named Svetlana Samoilova as vice president of Augmented Reality (AR), effective immediately. Samoilova brings more than 20 years of software and hardware development and engineering experience to PogoTec, and will lead the AR team in the development of an augmented reality system attachable to eyewear and designed specifically for the consumer market. This AR system, believed to be the first of its type, will utilize the proprietary platform that PogoTec has developed that enables wearables to attach and detach magnetically to virtually all glasses.

“Svetlana has significant experience bringing consumer products to life—from idea to concept, prototype, execution and delivery—which will be critical to PogoTec as we continue to innovate and develop new offerings,” said Brendan Sheil, chief executive officer and president of PogoTec.

Before joining PogoTec, Samoilova served as senior director of engineering of HoloLens at Microsoft from August 2013 through September 2016. She was responsible for system integration of HoloLens, engineering of advanced and new technologies, early prototyping, HoloLens peripherals, firmware development and hardware design verification.

Prior to that, she served as director of Intel Media OnCue TV at Intel Corp. from April 2012 to July 2013 where she led product and project development and the release of the new Intel TV service and hardware for set-top boxes. Samoilova spent more than eight years at Apple Inc. as director of mobile devices (iPod/iPhone) and senior manager of the iPod/iPhone division.

She also previously served as senior engineering manager of Access Softek. Samoilova began her career as a research scientist and software developer at the Prokhorov General Physics Institute.