Executive Bios

For more than 20 years, Corey Lee has pushed the boundaries of the amateur astronomy industry as an engineer and product development team leader. As a member of Celestron’s executive team since 2006, Corey has helped Celestron develop key technologies such as the highly regarded EdgeHD optical system and our fully automated alignment technology, StarSense. Now, as Celestron’s CEO, he continues to focus on innovation and creating the next generation of accessible, affordable, easy to use telescopes. Corey holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA. Prior to joining Celestron, he honed his engineering skills through years of experience in the aerospace industry.

Our Chief Financial Officer, Paul Roth joined Celestron in 2012 with a background full of broad industry experience in various finance and accounting capacities: CFO, Controller, Finance Director, M&A Director, Auditor, and Advisor. Paul began his career with Price Waterhouse, where he worked with a variety of small businesses and mid-market clients for more than 10 years. He then spent several years living and working overseas in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe (based in Budapest) and Asia Pacific (based in Hong Kong and Shanghai). After Price Waterhouse, Paul joined Delphi Automotive for the next 10-plus years, where he held a variety of positions within the Finance community. In addition to working at Delphi HQ, he spent several years with them in Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore on different expatriate assignments. Paul is a CPA and holds a B.S. in Accountancy from Ferris State University in Michigan.

Alan is one of the founders of Celestron, having been with the company for more than 50 years. He joined with Tom Johnson in the mid-1960s to create and develop the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, which was revolutionary at the time and continues to be an important part of Celestron. In the subsequent decades, Hale and Johnson engineered and developed many other telescopes, accessories, sport optics, and related optics. Hale served as President and CEO for many years, during which time the company grew to be the largest telescope brand in the world. He credits the success of Celestron to all its dedicated and hardworking employees, past and present. Alan earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration & Marketing from California State University, Long Beach and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University. He has been an amateur astronomer all these years, as well as an avid bird watcher and hunter.

Ben Hauck has been involved in the astronomy and optics industry since 1997. After 13 years of experience working at a leading Celestron retailer, Ben joined Celestron in 2009 as Specialty Accounts Sales Manager. He quickly proved his value to the organization and served Celestron as National Sales Manager before his promotion to his current position as Senior Vice President of North American Sales. From an early age, Ben has been involved in astronomy, and fondly recalls exploring the night sky as a kid with his mom’s 10” Dobsonian telescope. His interest in science led to extensive college coursework in physics, chemistry, and biology, though his educational path eventually led to a B.S. in Business Administration from California State University San Marcos. Ben’s career spans a wide range of experience, including operations, website development and optimization, online marketing, event management, and sales.

Since joining Celestron in 1999, Amir has worked his way through many departments—manufacturing, quality assurance, purchasing, and distribution—before becoming Vice President of Operations, where it’s his job to ensure Celestron’s high standards of quality, consistency, and efficiency. His team spans a wide range of job functions at Celestron, from our Technical Support representatives, to our optical technicians, to our warehouse staff. In addition to supervising all operations at our Torrance, CA, headquarters, Amir communicates directly with Celestron’s factories in China, where he works onsite two to three weeks per year. Under his guidance, Celestron developed quality assurance criteria based on military standard 105e and coordinated packaging and drop test standards in accordance with ISTA 3A. Amir also recruited and trained a team of nine China-based manufacturing consultants to oversee quality control and factory compliance for all our products.

As the Vice President of Marketing and Product Development, Stephanie Schroeter is responsible for bringing new products to market and finding creative new ways to communicate with our current and potential customers. After graduating from university in her native Germany, Stephanie moved to the United States and began her career in the extremely competitive automotive industry. In addition to marketing and product management, Stephanie has experience in sales and manufacturing. A firm believer in personal and professional development, she holds multiple professional certifications including Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt, SCRUM Master, and Certified Process Improvement Manager. Her broad background enables her to build cross-functional teams and improve processes companywide.