-- When something on a circuit board does not behave the way it should, or when a design that worked beautifully in CAD runs straight into the limits of physics, manufacturing, or cost, Michael Kasbergen is the person Light Tree Technology calls.
As Chief Technology Officer of Light Tree Technology (LTT), Kasbergen leads the engineering and production side of the company's medical and consumer device work from its office in Shenzhen, China. The designs themselves are created at LTT's Dutch office in the Netherlands. Kasbergen and his technical team in China are responsible for taking those designs and turning them into real, manufacturable, high-quality products. It is a model the company has invested in heavily: design discipline in Europe, engineering execution and production proximity in southern China.
"A design that works in a CAD model and a design that works on a production line are two very different things," Kasbergen says. "Our job here is to close that gap, to take what the team in the Netherlands has designed and make sure it can actually be built, at quality, at volume, and at a price the client can live with."
Services across China and the Netherlands
Kasbergen's decision to base himself in Shenzhen is a deliberate one. The city, often described as the Silicon Valley of hardware, is where a large share of the world's PCBs, electronic components, and consumer devices are designed and built. Being on the ground there gives him, and by extension LTT's clients, a front-row seat to what is genuinely possible in electronics right now.
"Whatever new component, new sensor, new process is coming out, you tend to see it here first," he says. "By the time a Western engineer reads about it, we have often already had it on the bench."
It also means he is physically close to production. In hardware, that proximity matters. A problem on the assembly line that might take weeks of email back-and-forth to resolve from Europe can often be sorted in a single day when the technical lead can walk into the factory.
"You can solve a problem in two hours by walking onto the factory floor that would take you two weeks to solve over email from Europe," he says. "That is one of the reasons I am here."
Michael Kasbergens Role and Expertise
Within LTT, Kasbergen has become the company's technical lead for complex challenges. When a client brings a difficult brief to the company, a new technology, an unfamiliar manufacturing process, or a tight tolerance that no one is sure can be met, the question gets routed to him. He is quick to note that he does not solve those problems alone. Behind him is a technical team in Shenzhen, each member bringing a different area of expertise.
"I am not going to pretend I crack any of this on my own," he says. "The team here is what makes the difference. My job is mostly to ask the right questions, set the direction, and then get out of their way."
That combination, a willingness to take on technical challenges paired with a clear-eyed view of what is and is not achievable, is part of why LTT has been able to position itself as a partner capable of taking on demanding medical device projects under standards such as ISO 13485, alongside consumer products where speed and design precision are non-negotiable.
A Considered View of Chinese Engineering Talent
Kasbergen is also openly appreciative of the people he works with in China. He describes Chinese engineers and technicians as hard-working and unafraid of difficult challenges, qualities that, in his experience, translate directly into products that meet quality standards Western teams sometimes assume are out of reach in Asia.
"The people I work with here are not afraid of hard problems," he says. "They roll up their sleeves, they figure it out. That is a culture, and it shows up in the products we end up shipping. However, recruiting is an important part of this as well. Still having the Dutch critical mindset helps me in recruiting the best people."
The Shenzhen ecosystem is home to some of the most experienced hardware talent in the world, and LTT's setup, a Dutch-led design office paired with a technical office embedded inside that ecosystem, is built to draw on both sides: the design discipline and client-management standards expected by LTT's international customers, combined with the engineering depth and supply chain agility of southern China.
Why It Matters for LTT's Clients
For the companies LTT works with, many of them developing devices that will eventually carry their own brand into medical and consumer markets, the Netherlands-to-Shenzhen pipeline is, in practical terms, the reason devices reach the market matching the vision the Dutch team put on paper together with the client, rather than a reduced version of it.
A design developed in the Dutch office lands in Kasbergen's lap, and from there moves through engineering, prototyping, trial production, and full production with the technical lead physically present at every step. The loop between problem and solution is compressed. The handoffs that typically introduce risk are managed by a team that spans both ends of the pipeline.
It is a model LTT has chosen to structure its international client work around, and one that Kasbergen continues to develop from his base in Shenzhen.
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