Page 48 - Southern Oregon Magazine Spring 2018

neck of the woods | in the biz

“I felt like the Beverly
Hillbillies,” remembers
Salton, as they loaded up
and drove the dream to
California where they set
up a new martial arts school,
and continued to advance in
their technology knowledge. A
consulting contract turned into
a profitable partnership as they
developed the first Windows-
based monitoring system that
could display multiple views side
by side for a real-time monitoring
of sensor systems. “We became a
system integrator,” says Salton of
those years. It lasted until the end
of 2001 when their main sensor
supplier abruptly severed their
connection. “That was a real crit-
ical inflection point,” says Salton.
“We were so into software that I
thought that was our future.”

Kim thought otherwise. Sending
her team back to school,
Lighthouse produced their first
sensor in six months, even dis-
playing it in a plexiglass case
when it debuted to be sure her
competitors understood it was
new technology they had devel-
oped. “All of the sensor issues we
had struggles with in the past,”
says Newman, “we solved in our
new designs.” The company’s
refocus also began their connec-
tion with Southern Oregon when
production began here.
LOOKING AHEAD
Among the many awards and
accolades that Dr. Kim and
Lighthouse have won over the
years, and through each itera-
tion of the company’s history,
Kim holds the company true to
their original vision: using com-
puters to benefit people. Her
adaptive strategies have kept the
company at the forefront of their
industry, and in 2017 led to two
global Stevie Awards for Women Dr. Tae Yun Kim won two international
in Business for the company: Stevie Awards for Women in Business:
Best New Product of the Year ‘Lifetime Achievement,’ and ‘Best New
Product of the Year’ at the New York
for their Active Count 100H, City awards gala, Nov 2017.

46 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | spring 2018