Carin Elisabeth Wendland

Carin Wendland, 79, passed away August 18, 2016 at Las Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California. A steadfast Swedish woman with a degree in psychology, she was a marketing innovator during fiber optics' nascent years and through the telecom boom which followed the breakup of the Bell System in 1984.

Carin, along with her then husband Paul, founded Photodyne Inc. in 1979 in order to market and sell the first fiber optic power meter then husband Paul Wendland had invented.

The pioneering couple launched the company from their kitchen table. A psychologist, Carin knew nothing about technology or marketing, however, she reluctantly agreed to help get the company off the ground and then go back to her work. She would never leave. With an abundance of enthusiasm and an almost natural sense of marketing, over the next 10 years, she built the brand PHOTODYNE to be a recognized and trusted supplier for fiber optic test equipment. She assumed the role of Vice President Marketing, International Sales Manager and Human Resource Manager. She loved the challenge, loved the people and the industry. It was an exciting time to be in fiber optics, especially with the AT&T breakup into the seven Baby Bells.

Carin was not a traditional marketing person. She brought an unusual, woman's touch to the usually staid and conservative product advertising and marketing messages typical of the instrumentation sector. She considered those typical ads with a product photo and technical specs "really boring". Instead, Photodyne ads were accented by roses, employee's children or holiday poems. They livened up the pages in the budding fiber optic trade publications, such as Fiber Optic Product News, Lightwave, Outside Plant, and Electronics. The Photodyne brand became synonymous with innovation and dependability.

Carin was fluent in many languages and, with that additional skill, she quickly built a competent International Sales network. She made the International distributors her extended family and she would groom and motivate her "Boys" (as she liked to call distributors). She would lead them to forge lasting alliances with the smallest to largest of international telecoms, including British Telecom (BT), SIP (Italy), NTT (Japan), Deutsche Bundespost (DBP), and the Swiss telecommunications industry. She would set tough sales goals and did not accept results below her targets.

Carin knew that marketing starts at the beginning of the product design cycle. Carin's training in psychology allowed her to look beyond technology. She would look from the user's viewpoint and from the emotional and esthetics point of view. Product review meetings often would be dominated by her comments such as "The display needs to be bigger," "Move that button," and "The unit is too big for a Hand-Held." Ultimately, this is what made the Photodyne product superior to the competition.

Today, Paul Wendland has this to say, "Carin was ahead of her time. She parlayed her multi-language skills into a world-wide sales organization for the company she helped found - Photodyne. Whatever her overseas reps needed she provided, be it Photodyne products or their favorite American cereal. As a result, they were devoted to her and when she called for additional sales for the month, they delivered. It was a quite personal relationship that benefited all involved. When 3M was looking for a fiber optic instrument company to buy, they choose Photodyne primarily because of the strong sales organization. Carin also handled human resources. She devoted personal attention to all the company employees. She became their second mother, rather similar to her relationship with her overseas representatives."

She was also a mentor to the culturally-diverse Photodyne staff. The company would be a professional springboard for many young employees and spawned other fiber optic test & measurement companies, such as Rifocs Corporation and Optotest Corporation.

Robert Rickenbach, former Chief Engineer at Photodyne, contributes, "Carin was a mentor to me on how to interact with people. Without the skills she taught me on marketing, I might never have been able to found and grow two successful fiber optic companies."

Born in Säffle, Sweden, Carin graduated with Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Psychology from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. During the last ten years, she split her time between Phoenix, Arizona, where she could follow her grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and Westlake Village, California, where she could be close to longtime friends.

She is survived by her two daughters, one step-daughter, two step-sons, 14 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. Her memory will continue to "light" the way for all she touched.