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Toronto-based Poet Technologies currently owns 34 patents and has seven more pending.

Shares of Poet Technologies (TSXV:PTK) are down today after a key staffer changed his role with the company.

Dr. Geoff Taylor, Poet’s chief scientist today resigned as a director and entered into a new consulting contract with the company. The moves follows on a management shakeup that saw Dr. Suresh Venkatesan appointed as the company’s new CEO and Dr. Subhash Deshmukh fill the role of COO.

“I am thankful to the board of directors for its support,” said Taylor. “I am looking forward to concentrating on my primary mission, the uplifting of Poet to a mainstream integrated circuit technology. To this end I will be providing technical input to the board in the development and expansion of the Poet IP platform. Our CEO, Dr. Venkatesan, has joined the board and has provided new meaningful and exciting ideas for the deployment of our technology. I will continue to advise the board and liaise with Suresh on both technology improvement and implementation in new areas of focus. Both Suresh and I are increasingly convinced about the potential and applications of the disruptive Poet platform as we set our sights towards commercialization. Transitioning board responsibilities to Suresh allows me to spend more time working on new technology and product applications.”

Founded in 2000, Toronto-based Poet Technologies, formerly known as OPEL Technologies, shed its solar business in 2012 to focus on its core asset, a semiconductor fabrication process called POET. POET, an acronym for Planar Opto Electronic Technology, is technology management says can deliver semiconductor operating frequencies of up to 100 gigahertz and lower heat losses with greater reliability and a lower total system cost. The company currently owns 34 patents and has seven more pending.

At press time, shares of Poet Technologies were down 8.8% to $1.03.