Feature

Ron Kok, Inventor and Environmentalist, Visits the Harris School

During a visit to the Harris School this week, Ronald Kok, president and founder of the OTB Group, discussed his career as an inventor and environmentalist and his new venture to provide glasses to children in third world countries.

OTB Group is a Netherlands-based firm founded in 1994 that delivers inline manufacturing solutions for high-tech industries. Until the 1980s Kok had a successful career as an engineer at various industrial companies, but left to begin mass producing CDs and DVDs—initially out of his garage.

Kok said the main reason for his success was that machine he used, dubbed the “Miniliner,” could produce a large number of CDs inexpensively. Kok said, “The machine cost about $1 million and made about 10 million disks per year.”

This reduction of price was an important driving force behind the worldwide success of CDs. Since that time, Kok has helped automate manufacturing of contact lenses and solar cells. An avid environmentalist, he is also working toward making energy efficient homes in Holland.

Another current project is the production of glasses with two wheels that can be turned to adjust the prescription strength of the lenses, allowing almost anyone to pick up a pair and be able to use them immediately.

“There are 500 million children in this world that cannot get good glasses,” he said, which influences how they perform in school. “That drove me to take the student by the arm and say, ‘I will make it, whatever it will cost me.’” Kok is attempting to distribute the glasses to children in India and Africa for free with costs absorbed by the OTB Group and his foundation, Focus on Vision.