Jeff Mortensen.

NEW YORK—Smart Vision Labs has appointed Jeff Mortensen to the newly created position of vice president of sales. Mortensen brings more than 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development to the team, and will work to further the company’s mission of broadening access to vision care, the company said.

Mortensen will be responsible for overseeing sales and market strategy initiatives for Smart Vision Labs’ SVOne smartphone-based autorefractor. “Jeff has years of invaluable sales and marketing experience in the field of innovative eyecare technology and beyond,” said COO and co-founder Marc Albanese. “We are thrilled that he is going to help us drive our device sales efforts and build our network of independent reps across the country.”

Mortensen comes to Smart Vision Labs from PediaVision (recently acquired by Welch Allyn) where he joined their management team at inception in 2007. As vice president of business development, Mortensen directed market-facing activities for the successful 2011 launch of the Spot Vision Screener.

“Through my work on Spot, I recognized how vision screening plays an essential role in exposing an unmet need for eye exams,” said Mortensen. “I’m most impressed with the advanced technology of the SVOne and how Smart Vision Labs is bringing this powerful tool to eyecare professionals; a tool that will surely expedite practice flow and bring new opportunities for community based eyecare.”

Smart Vision Labs was founded in 2013 by photonics researchers Yaopeng Zhou and Marc Albanese, who met more than 10 years ago while developing a scanning laser ophthalmoscope in a joint program between the Schepens Eye Research Institute and Boston University. Recognizing the need for revolutionary and efficient technologies to enable regular eye exams, Smart Vision Labs launched their flagship product: the SVOne smartphone-based autorefractor that is powered by wavefront aberrometry and received additional funding this year, as reported by VMail.

Today, eyecare professionals are using the SVOne across the U.S., and the technology has been introduced in 21 different countries.