Lorenzo Benelli Honored with CLMA Trailblazers Award at GSLS

January 2026 - Company Update / Industry Recognition

At GSLS 2026, Lorenzo Benelli received the CLMA Trailblazers Award, recognizing outstanding achievement in advancing the specialty contact lens industry. Explore this milestone →

At the GSLS 2026, the Contact Lens Manufacturers Association recognized Lorenzo Benelli with the CLMA Trailblazers Award, presented “for outstanding achievement in product development to the enhancement of the contact lens industry”.

This recognition carries particular significance for us at Advance. Historically, the award has celebrated clinicians, manufacturers, and inventors who advanced lens designs, materials, and fitting philosophies. In 2026, the perspective expanded. For the first time, software itself was acknowledged as an important driver of progress in specialty contact lenses.

Lorenzo being awarded by John Hibbs, CLMA President

Over the past decades, software has enabled the transformation of contact lens manufacturing from a largely mechanical process, typical of the 1970s and 1980s, into a highly advanced digital workflow. Today’s laboratories rely on software to manage complex designs, support high levels of customization, and continuously introduce innovation into daily production. By recognizing product development driven by software, the CLMA highlighted a reality that modern contact lens manufacturers experience every day, that software has become a key driver for innovation and industry advancement.

A journey shaped by collaboration

For Lorenzo, this recognition also coincides with a personal milestone, his 30th year in the contact lens industry. More importantly, it reflects a collective journey built through long-term collaboration with laboratories, partners, and technology providers. His story with FocalPoints began in the mid-1990s, when Renato Liffredo started pursuing the idea of wavefront-driven, auto-fitting, freeform lenses. After graduating, Lorenzo joined that initiative, contributing to the first release of what would become FocalPoints^®.

Lorenzo speaking following the CLMA Trailblazers Award announcement.

In the early years, the challenge was clear: help laboratories manufacture increasingly complex lenses in a reliable and scalable way. That meant listening closely to labs, understanding their workflows, and translating real manufacturing needs into software. As FocalPoints entered the US market with the support of industry leaders, early collaborations with companies such as Essilor, Metro Optics, and ABB introduced new technical and operational challenges. Each lab pushed the system further, expanding FocalPoints from a design tool into a fully integrated manufacturing environment.

Enabling Innovation through Integration

When software becomes the center of the Lab, innovation is easier to adopt. New lathes, metrology systems, and clinical technologies can integrate naturally into existing workflows instead of disrupting them. This approach has guided decades of development, from the first lathe integrations to advanced metrology, automation, licensing, and most recently higher-order aberration correction. Close collaboration with instrument manufacturers and clinical partners has helped turn complex technologies into practical tools, making advanced optics accessible to a broader part of the industry.

This award is not just a recognition of a personal journey, but of a broader shift in our industry, where software is no longer a support tool, but one of the main drivers of innovation.

Lorenzo Benelli, CTO Advance

Recognizing an industry shift

The CLMA Trailblazers Award celebrates more than an individual career. It recognizes a broader shift in how innovation happens in specialty contact lenses. As Lorenzo noted in his speech, this award belongs equally to the laboratories, partners, and colleagues who continuously challenge the status quo, and to every individual contributor. At Advance Medical, we are proud of this recognition. It reinforces our belief that progress comes from listening, collaboration, and building tools that quietly empower our customers to move faster, with confidence. Congratulations, Lorenzo. This milestone honors the past, and points clearly toward the future of our industry.

Seeing Lorenzo recognized with the CLMA Trailblazers Award is a moment of great pride for all of us. This award reflects not only his personal commitment and vision, but also the values that guide our work every day, curiosity, agile thinking, and a long-term dedication to the specialty contact lens industry. We believe progress is built by people who quietly move the industry forward, and Lorenzo embodies that spirit.

Filippo Selden, CEO Advance