In December 2020, the GSA BOD appointed Simon Segars, Chief Executive Officer of Arm, as Chair of the GSA Board of Directors. Under his leadership, Segars will continue to drive the GSA vision of creating and maintaining an efficient, profitable and sustainable global ecosystem, as well as represent an extended value chain including systems, software, solutions and services, in addition to semiconductors.
Simon Segars
Simon Segars
CEO
Arm, Inc.
Since joining Arm as one of its first employees, Simon has driven technical and business innovations to help transform the company into the leading architect of the most pervasive compute technology the world has ever seen.
Simon led the development of early ground-breaking Arm processors – the Arm7 and Arm9 – powering the world’s first digital mobile phones. He played a key role in developing industry standards, and his engineering work led to him being granted several embedded-systems patents. He became vice president of engineering in 2001, and before being named as Arm CEO in July 2013, he held several other strategy positions including global head of sales. He was personally responsible for expanding the company’s U.S. business and strengthening its leadership and relationships in California’s Silicon Valley, where he still lives with his family.
Simon helped steer the company through the 2016 acquisition by SoftBank, and, in June 2017, was elected to serve on the SoftBank board. He also sits on the boards of the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance), TechWorks and is a non-executive director at Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
Simon earned his BEng in electronic engineering from the University of Sussex and an MSc in computer science from the University of Manchester.
Jodi Shelton
Jodi Shelton
President
GSA
Jodi Shelton is the co-founder and president of GSA. A pioneer within the technology space, Shelton was instrumental in the creation of the Alliance and has continuously addressed global issues in the industry as the voice of its members. Under her leadership, GSA has grown its membership to include companies throughout the supply chain representing 25 countries across the globe. In her role as president, Shelton oversees GSA daily operations, ensuring that the Alliance remains focused on achieving its defined mission and goal to foster a more effective ecosystem through collaboration, integration and innovation. She is the key liaison between GSA and the business community at high-level financial and industry conferences, providing insight on key topics pertaining to the global fabless supply chain. Shelton earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from San Diego State University and her master’s degree in political science from the University of Houston.
Cristiano Amon
Cristiano Amon
President
QUALCOMM Incorporated
Cristiano Amon serves as executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT), the world’s largest provider of wireless chipsets and software solutions. In this role, he is responsible for the oversight of all activities related to Qualcomm’s semiconductor business. Amon also serves as a member of Qualcomm’s executive committee.
Amon served as co-president of QCT for three years and prior to this was senior vice president of Product Management with QCT, managing the Company’s wireless chipset portfolio. Amon joined Qualcomm in 1995 as an engineer and during this time he has held several other business and technical leadership roles at the Company.
Prior to joining Qualcomm Amon served as the chief technical officer of Vésper, a wireless operator in Brazil and held positions in NEC, Ericsson and Velocom Inc.
Amon holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from UNICAMP – Universidade Estadual de Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Bami Bastani
Bami Bastani
Sr. VP, Business Units
GLOBALFOUNDRIES
Dr. Bastani has over three decades of high-tech industry experience, including component to system-level RF enterprises and digital SoC companies. He has held the position of President, CEO, and board member in the mobility, consumer, and broadband markets.
Prior to joining GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Dr. Bastani was President, CEO, and board member of Meru Networks, a global enterprise-grade Wi-Fi networks solution provider. During his time with the company, Dr. Bastani transformed Meru Networks from a hardware company to a solution provider, delivering a portfolio of software, software-defined networks (2015 SDN Excellence Award), and subscription cloud offerings (WaaS).
Dr. Bastani served as President & CEO of Trident Microsystems, Inc., a global semiconductor company with primary products in “Smart Set Top Box” and “Smart TV”, as well as software and hardware (SoC) total system solutions.
Dr. Bastani also served as President, CEO, and board member, for ANADIGICS Inc., from 1998 to 2008. ANADIGICS focused on RF solutions for the mobility and broadband markets.
Prior to ANADIGICS, Dr. Bastani served in leadership positions at Fujitsu Microelectronics as EVP for System LSI Group, at National Semiconductor as VP and GM of Embedded Technologies Division, VP of Memory Products Division, and VP of Technology Development, and at Intel Corporation’s Memory and Microprocessor Technology Development organization.
Dr. Bastani has also served on the Board of Directors for several public and private companies, as well as several industry associations.
Dr. Bastani holds a Ph.D. & MSEE in Microelectronics from Ohio State University. He is co-inventor on three patents and has authored over a dozen publications.
Dr. Bastani & his wife, Janice, reside in Silicon Valley, California
Rani Borkar
Rani Borkar
Corporate Vice President, Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure
Microsoft
Rani Borkar is the Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure (AHSI) and a member of Azure’s Senior Leadership Team. In her role, Borkar leads the core organizations building Microsoft’s leading cloud computing platform—from silicon, systems, to supply chain.
Throughout her career, Borkar has established herself as a pioneering hardware engineer in the semiconductor industry, a technology executive, product visionary, and trusted leader with decades of experience in the computing industry. She is passionate about delivering end-to-end solutions to empower customers to achieve more.
Since joining Microsoft, Borkar has been instrumental in strengthening Azure’s place as the industry-leading cloud computing platform. Currently, Azure is the global leader in enterprise cloud computing, as it serves more than 95% of the Fortune 500.
As the head of Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure, she strengthens Microsoft’s deeply integrated Azure cloud services, technology roadmap, research and development efforts, and quantum computing. She is responsible for the vision, strategy, and architecture of silicon development as well as global capacity deployment for Microsoft’s cloud data center infrastructure. Under her leadership, Microsoft’s brightest engineering minds focus on developing technologies that will solve the world’s toughest problems and drive end-to-end business value for Azure’s products and solutions.
Before joining Microsoft, Borkar served as the Vice President of OpenPOWER Development at IBM. Prior to IBM, Borkar spent most of her career at Intel. As Corporate Vice President, she led Intel’s silicon product development strategy while leading large, complex, and diverse global engineering organizations that developed world-class microprocessors for Intel servers, PCs, phones, tablets, and the Internet of Things.
Leading with the philosophy of “mission first, people always,” Borkar has inspired and transformed organizations by building close-knit communities. To produce great technology, Borkar believes in the power of combining technology assets and engineering talent with the values of collaboration and mentorship to empower teams to achieve more and move the industry forward.
Borkar has keynoted at industry-leading engineering leadership events and conferences that empower women in technical fields. She is a member of the board for the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), and she serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees at Oregon State University to help guide the state’s effort to advance economic development and innovation.
Borkar earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree—both in physics—from the University of Mumbai, India. She went on to earn a second master’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University. Borkar also holds an Executive Program in Leadership (LEAD) certificate from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Originally from Mumbai, Borkar calls both Portland, OR and Seattle home. She is married with two sons.
Rick Cassidy
Rick Cassidy
Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy Office
TSMC
Throughout his career Cassidy has demonstrated a keen ability to manage both the technical and business areas of the semiconductor industry. His leadership and drive have had a dramatic and lasting impact on the way semiconductors are designed and manufactured.
Cassidy became President, TSMC North America in January 2005 and was elected a Corporate Vice President, TSMC, Ltd. in November 2008. Since joining the company in 1997 as Vice President, Account Management, he has driven many of the strategic initiatives and business process improvements that helped TSMC achieve its current market position. He also served as Senior Vice President, Operations, instituting productivity and business process efficiencies that kept customers and the company on-course during one of the semiconductor industry’s most turbulent times; and Executive Vice President, Office of the President, TSMC North America.
He began his career at Fairchild Semiconductor Company (later acquired by National Semiconductor) where he held a series of executive and management positions in engineering, manufacturing, quality and reliability, and marketing. Prior to Joining TSMC, he was Vice President and General Manager of National’s Military & Aerospace Division. Cassidy serves on the GSA board of directors, an organization dedicated to the advancement of the worldwide semiconductor industry.
A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, Cassidy served as a U.S. Army officer before embarking on his business career.
Naga Chandrasekaran
Senior Vice President, Technology Development
Micron Technology, Inc.
Naga Chandrasekaran is Senior Vice President of the Technology Development at Micron Technology in Boise Idaho. Mr. Chandrasekaran leads process and equipment technology development and supplier roadmap development efforts for all memory and non-memory products. In addition he also manages corporate characterization labs and R&D fabrication operations at Micron’s headquarters in Boise, Idaho.
In 2001, he joined Micron as CMP development engineer and has since then held a series of positions of increasing responsibility in process development across multiple R&D process areas, leading manufacturing and technology transfer efforts, integration of new business units, and development of solar, LED, and display technology. Between 2007 – 2008, he also served as Fab Engineering Manager for IM Flash, Singapore Operations.
Mr. Chandrasekaran has several keynote publications, patents, and served as invited panel speaker in several conferences. He has also received several awards including the “Jiri Tlusty Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer of the year” awarded by Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) in 2003, and the “Engineering Manager of the year” awarded by the American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM) in 2018.
Mr. Chandrasekaran holds doctorate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering, both from Oklahoma State University and dual Executive MBA from University of California, LA (UCLA-Anderson School of Management) and National University of Singapore (NUS).
Steve Chu
Steve Chu
CEO & Executive Vice President
Unisco Group and Unigroup
Steve Chu, CEO of Unisoc Group and executive vice president of Unigroup, has 22 years of experience in the telecommunication, semiconductor and investment industries. Before joining Unisoc, Steve took various senior executive positions, including vice president of strategy and technology at Huawei, chief strategy officer at Hisilicon, head of Huawei Innovation Incubator, director of Wireless Business at Hisilicon, deputy general manager at Datang Mobile, general manager of Wireless Research Division at Huawei. Steve also led the Microelectronics Division of CAS Zhangjiang Research Center in Shanghai.
Steve is widely respected in the mobile telecommunication and microelectronics industries, as the founder of several important technologies and the owner of a number of international patents. Steve led the invention of the first commercialized wireless base station in China, and the first prototype of software radio base station in the world. He led the development of the first mobile phone chip solution (Holly Communication’s CDMA), the first TD-SCDMA mobile phone chip solution (Datang Mobile), and the first WCDMA mobile phone chip solution (Huawei Hisilicon) in China, as well as the first set of WCDMA base station chipset in the world.
In addition to his devotion in research activities, Steve is a promotor of technology commercialization. He drove the international commercialization of the Broadband Software Radio Technology, founded the Huawei Innovation Incubator, and developed greenfield projects in high-speed railway telecommunication, e-health, digital home, and new energy. By acquiring the British start-up NEUL, Steve promoted the NB-IOT technology standard and the industry in China.
Steve has also built one of the most experienced investment teams in the semiconductor industry in China. He has a successful track-record of over 10 investment and acquisitions in China, Britain, Belgium, Israel, and Singapore. Steve was also the founding member of the Advanced Semiconductor Technology Research Center – a high profile organization established by SMIC, Huawei and Qualcomm, whose signing ceremony was witnessed by President Xi of China and King Philippe of Belgium. Steve is a member in the investment committee of the Sino IC Industry Investment Fund.
Steve graduated with a master’s degree from Xi‘an Jiaotong University,
Dr. Aart J. de Geus
Dr. Aart J. de Geus
Chairman & Co-CEO
Synopsys, Inc.
Since co-founding Synopsys in 1986, Dr. Aart de Geus has expanded Synopsys from a start-up synthesis enterprise to a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA). As a technology visionary, he is frequently asked to speak on topics related to the electronics industry. As one of the leading experts on logic simulation and logic synthesis, Dr. de Geus was made a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in January 1999. He has been honored for his industry achievements with the 2001 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Industrial Pioneer Award, the 2007 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal, and the 2008 EDAC/CEDA Kaufman award. In 2002, shortly after transacting the largest merger in EDA history, Dr. de Geus was named CEO of the Year by Electronic Business magazine, and in 2004, Entrepreneur of the Year in IT for Northern California by Ernst & Young. In November 2005, Electronic Business magazine chose Dr. de Geus as one of “The 10 Most Influential Executives.” In November of 2007, he was awarded the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) “Spirit of the Valley” Lifetime Achievement Award. In October 2008, he was presented with the Phil Kaufman Award for distinguished contributions to EDA and in 2009 was awarded the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award by the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA).
Dr. de Geus is active in the business community as chairman of the Board of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), and a member of TechNet, the GSA, and the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC). He is also heavily involved in education for the next generation, having created in 1999 the Synopsys Outreach Foundation, which promotes project-based science and math learning throughout Silicon Valley.
Anirudh Devgan
Anirudh Devgan
President and CEO
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Dr. Anirudh Devgan has served as President and CEO of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. since December 2021, and has been a member of the Board of Directors since August 2021. He served as President of the company from 2017 to 2021, overseeing all business groups, research and development, sales, field engineering and customer support, strategy, marketing, mergers and acquisitions, business development, and IT. Prior to becoming President, he was Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Digital & Signoff and System & Verification groups at Cadence.
Prior to joining Cadence in 2012, Dr. Devgan was General Manager and Corporate Vice President of the Custom Design Business Unit at Magma Design Automation. Previous roles include management and technical positions at IBM, where he received numerous awards including the IBM Outstanding Innovation Award. Dr. Devgan is an IEEE Fellow, has written numerous research papers, and holds several patents.
Dr. Devgan received a Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and MS and PhD degrees in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Brian Faith
Brian Faith
President & CEO
QuickLogic Corporation
Brian Faith was promoted to CEO in June 2016 after having served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Vice President of Worldwide Sales & Marketing between 2008 and 2016. Mr. Faith has been with QuickLogic since 1996, and during the last 20 years has held a variety of managerial and executive leadership positions in engineering, product line management, marketing and sales. Mr. Faith has also served as the Chairman of the Marketing Committee for the CE-ATA Organization. He holds a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University and was an Adjunct Lecturer at Santa Clara University for Programmable Logic courses.
Dr. Helmut Gassel
Dr. Helmut Gassel
Member of The Management Board and Chief Marketing Officer
Infineon Technologies AG
Helmut Gassel has been a member of the Management Board and Chief Marketing Officer of Infineon Technologies AG since 2016. He is responsible for Sales & Marketing, Regions, Strategy Development, Mergers & Acquisitions and Intellectual Property.
Helmut Gassel was born on March 13, 1964 in Dortmund, Germany. He studied at the Ruhr-University in Bochum and received a degree in physics and a doctorate in electrical engineering. He joined Infineon (Siemens AG until 1999) in 1995.
Positions within the company:
Since 2016 Member of the Management Board and Chief Marketing Officer, responsible for Sales & Marketing, Regions, Strategy Development, Mergers & Acquisitions and Intellectual Property
2012 Division President Industrial Power Control
2008 Division President Chip Card & Security
2006 Head of the Chip Card & Security ICs Business Unit with global business responsibility
2002 Head of Global Marketing and Application Technology for power semiconductors in automotive electronics
1999 Head of Marketing for power semiconductors for automotive electronics in North America, Detroit, MI, USA
1995 Project and Group Leader in power components development in Munich
Further positions:
1990 Project Manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems in Duisburg
Dr. Jae (Jaeheon) Jeong
Dr. Jae (Jaeheon) Jeong
Corporate EVP of Samsung Electronics
President of Samsung Device Solutions Americas
Dr. Jae Jeong serves as Corporate EVP of Samsung Electronics and President of Samsung Device Solutions Americas, where he is responsible for Samsung’s U.S. semiconductor business that includes Memory, Foundry, System LSI, LED, and Display. Dr. Jeong has held several leadership positions at Samsung including his most recent role as head of the Flash/Solution Product & Technology divisions where he introduced numerous storage product innovations. Prior to joining Samsung, Jeong worked at IBM and Intel as a performance and platform architect. Jeong holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering from Korea University, and received his Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in computer and electrical engineering from the University of Southern California.
Matt Johnson
Matt Johnson
President and CEO
Silicon Labs
Matt Johnson serves as President and CEO of Silicon Labs, a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world. Prior to becoming CEO, Matt led the company’s Internet of Things (IoT) business unit through a period of accelerating growth and industry leadership. Silicon Labs is now solely focused on technology solutions to enable smart, connected devices, which are transforming industries, growing economies, and improving lives and our environment. Before joining Silicon Labs, Matt held leadership positions at NXP, Freescale, and Fairchild Semiconductor.
Matt is dedicated to a strong company culture, innovative product development and operational excellence. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology from the University of Maine and has completed executive programs at Harvard Business School and Stanford University. Matt currently serves on the boards of Dell Children’s Medical Center Foundation, the Global Semiconductor Alliance, and the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Dr. Ann B. Kelleher
Dr. Ann B. Kelleher
EVP and GM, Technology Development
Intel Corporation
Dr. Ann B. Kelleher is executive vice president and general manager of Technology Development at Intel Corporation. She is responsible for the company’s worldwide manufacturing operations, including Fab Sort Manufacturing, Assembly Test Manufacturing and strategic planning, as well as corporate quality assurance and corporate services.
Kelleher joined Intel in 1996 as a process engineer, going on to manage technology transfers and factory ramp-ups in a variety of positions spanning 200mm and 300mm technologies. She started her manufacturing leadership journey as the factory manager of Fab 24 in Leixlip, Ireland. She was site manager of Intel’s Fab 11X facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and plant manager of Intel’s Fab 12 facility in Chandler, Arizona. She then became general manager of the Fab Sort Manufacturing organization where she was responsible for all aspects of Intel’s high-volume silicon manufacturing.
Before assuming her current position in Manufacturing and Operations, Kelleher was co-general manager of the Technology and Manufacturing Group where she was responsible for corporate quality assurance, corporate services, Intel product supply chain, corporate supply chain and strategic planning for the company’s worldwide manufacturing operations.
She holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, all from University College Cork in Ireland.
Dr. Lawrence Loh
Dr. Lawrence Loh
President, MediaTek USA Inc. and Corporate Sr. Vice President
MediaTek Inc.
Over 20+ years of his professional career, Dr. Loh has demonstrated his contributions to the global semiconductor industry not only as a hands-on IC design engineer/architect, but also a seasoned corporate executive with management scope covering RD/engineering and business operations.
Dr. Loh is a Corporate Vice President of MediaTek Inc., responsible for centralized corporate RD and engineering functions including RF, analog/mixed-signal and circuits/hardware engineering and technology development for all MediaTek’s product lines including wireless communication, mobile application processors, wireless connectivity, home entertainment, optical storage and broadband/networking business. He is also serving as President of MediaTek USA, overseeing the company’s global operations in Europe and America.
Before joining MediaTek in 2004, Dr. Loh had contributed to IC design industry in areas of read/write channels for magnetic and optical storage, high-performance analog filters, solid-state fingerprint sensors, highspeed SERDES and wireline PHY transceivers for IT, broadband, networking and mass storage applications. Dr. Loh started his first circuit design position at IMP and later he joined Cirrus Logic, where his last position was Director of Analog IC Engineering. In 1998, Dr. Loh founded Silicon Bridge Inc., where he successfully led a number of analog/mixed-signal IC development projects with major semiconductor companies including MediaTek Inc. and Altera Corporation.
Dr. Loh received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering, with emphasis in analog circuit design, from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. He served on ISSCC International Technical Program Committee during 2005-1010. Dr. Loh has authored/co-authored dozens of technical papers/patents in areas of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits/systems design and has contributed many panel talks and invited keynote speeches at numerous international conferences and professional communities.
Dr. Nicky Lu
Dr. Nicky Lu
Founder, Chairman and CEO
Etron Technology, Inc.
As a researcher, design architect, entrepreneur and chief executive, Dr. Lu has dedicated his career to the worldwide IC design and semiconductor industry. In addition to Etron Technology, where he serves as Founder, Chair, and CEO, he also co-founded several other notable high-tech companies including Ardentec, Global Unichip and GTBF.
He co-invented and pioneered a 3D-DRAM technology, known as the Substrate-Plate Trench-Capacitor (SPT) cell, along with its associated array architecture, which has been widely used by IBM and its licensees from 4Mb to 1Gb DRAMs and embedded DRAMs worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Dr. Lu designed several High-Speed CMOS DRAM (HSDRAM) chips, all with top world record performance. He was a co-architect leading the 8-inch wafer and DRAM/SRAM/LOGIC technology developments for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry in the early 1990s and also created many Taiwan companies as prominent silicon-chip suppliers. Since 1999 he has pioneered Known-Good-Die Memory Products enabling 3D stacked-die system chips; this work summoned the new rise of an IC Heterogeneous Integration Era as described in his ISSCC-2004 plenary talk, demonstrating a new 3D-IC trend. He was a keynote speaker at the 2016 A-SSCC declaring the Silicon-Age-4.0 Era with a new Virtual Moore’s Law for continual economic growth.
Dr. Lu received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University and M.S. and Ph.D. in EE from Stanford University. He holds over 37 granted U.S. patents and has published more than 60 technical papers. He serves or has served as Managing Board Director and was Chairman of TSIA, as Board Member of Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) and GSA’s General Chair (2009 to 2011), and Chairman of WSC (World Semiconductor Council) from 2014 to 2015.
He received the Scientific Management Award (2012) from Chinese Society for Management of Technology & Taiwan’s Golden Merchant Award (2007) from General Chamber of Commerce. He is an Outstanding Alumnus of National Taiwan University and National Chiao-Tung University (also Chair Professor ‘05-’07), the recipient of the IEEE 1998 Solid-State Circuits Award and a SEMI Industry Contribution Award in 2017, an IEEE Fellow and a member of NAE (National Academy of Engineering of USA).
Matthew Murphy
Matthew Murphy
President & CEO
Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.
Matt Murphy is President and Chief Executive Officer of Marvell Technology. He has led the company since joining in July 2016 and also serves as a member of company’s Board of Directors. In his role as CEO, Matt is responsible for leading new technology development, directing ongoing operations and driving Marvell’s growth strategy.
Prior to joining Marvell, Matt worked for Maxim Integrated, where he advanced through a series of business leadership roles over two decades. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President of Business Units and Sales & Marketing, overseeing all product development and go-to-market activities. In prior roles, Matt led the company’s communications, data center, and automotive business groups, all of which experienced significant growth under his leadership.
Matt earned a B.A. from Franklin & Marshall College, and is also a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program.
Dr. Omkaram Nalamasu
Dr. Omkaram Nalamasu
CTO & Sr. Vice President
Applied Materials, Inc.
Dr. Omkaram (Om) Nalamasu is senior vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) for Applied Materials. He brings extensive experience and passion to the role of CTO, where he is leading the development of new product pipelines, securing government funding for key strategic projects and building a world-class team to maintain Applied Materials’ technology leadership in the industries it serves and enable growth into new markets.
Dr. Nalamasu is also the president of Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital fund of Applied Materials, overseeing the financial and strategic investments in early and growth-stage privately held companies.
A world-renowned expert in materials science and technology and one of our industry’s respected forward thinkers, Dr. Nalamasu has championed a renewed focus on the company’s innovation culture through various internal development programs and open innovation methods.
Dr. Nalamasu joined Applied Materials in 2006, after serving as vice president of research and NYSTAR Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Prior to this, He has held key research and development leadership positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, and Agere Systems, Inc.
His research interests include nanomanufacturing, nanopatterning, electronic and photonic materials, and lithography, with special emphasis on applying patterning and materials know-how for device fabrication for electronics, photonics and energy applications.
Dr. Nalamasu has made seminal contributions to the fields of optical lithography and polymeric materials science and technology. He has received numerous awards, authored more than 180 papers, review articles and books, and holds more than 35 patents.
Dr. Nalamasu is a member of the board of directors of The Tech Museum in San Jose, and serves on several International and National advisory boards. He received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
mark papermaster
Mark Papermaster
Chief Technology Officer & Executive Vice President
AMD
Mark Papermaster is Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Technology and Engineering at AMD and is responsible for corporate technical direction, product development including system-on-chip (SOC) methodology, microprocessor design, I/O and memory and advanced research. He led the re-design of engineering processes at AMD and the development of the award-winning “Zen” high-performance x86 CPU family, high-performance GPUs and the company’s modular design approach, Infinity Fabric. He also oversees Information Technology that delivers AMD’s compute infrastructure and services.
His more than 35 years of engineering experience includes significant leadership roles managing the development of a wide range of products, from microprocessors to mobile devices and high-performance servers. Before joining AMD in October 2011 as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Papermaster was the leader of Cisco’s Silicon Engineering Group, the organization responsible for silicon strategy, architecture, and development for the company’s switching and routing businesses. He served as Apple Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering, where he was responsible for iPod and iPhone hardware development. He also held a number of senior leadership positions at IBM overseeing development of the company’s key microprocessor and server technologies.
Papermaster received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and master’s degree from the University of Vermont, both in Electrical Engineering. He is a long-term member of the University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering Advisory Board, Olin College Presidents Council and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Most recently, he was appointed to the CTO Forum Advisory Board and IEEE Industry Advisory Board.
Steve Sanghi
Steve Sanghi
Executive Chairman
Microchip Technology
Steve Sanghi has led Microchip Technology since 1990 and now is the longest serving CEO of a semiconductor company. Mr. Sanghi led the IPO of Microchip (Nasdaq: MCHP) in March 1993 with annual sales of $89M. Under Mr. Sanghi’s continued leadership, Microchip’s current revenue is at a $5.2 billion run rate and a market value of approximately $24 billion. Microchip has returned a cumulative stock-price gain of over 180X since the IPO in March 1993. Under Mr. Sanghi’s leadership, Microchip completed its 116th consecutive profitable quarter on September 30, 2019, an achievement unmatched in the semiconductor industry.
Microchip is an industry consolidator and has purchased 18 companies in the last 10 years creating enormous value for shareholders. Mr. Sanghi is co-author of the book “Driving Excellence: How the Aggregate System Turned Microchip Technology from a Failing Company to a Market Leader (Wiley; April 2006).”
Before joining the company, Mr. Sanghi was vice president of operations at Waferscale Integration, Inc., a semiconductor company, from 1988 to 1990. Mr. Sanghi was employed by Intel Corporation from 1978 to 1988, where he held various positions in management and engineering, the most recent serving as general manager of programmable memory operations.
In June 1995, Mr. Sanghi received an Arizona Entrepreneur of the Year award. Mr. Sanghi is the only CEO to win “Executive of the Year” award twice by Electronic Engineering Times. And Microchip is the only company to win “Company of the Year” award twice by the Arizona Business Leadership Association (ABL). Additionally, Mr. Sanghi has been named to the Phoenix Business Journal’s annual list of the Most Admired CEOs, and the Arizona Technology Council selected Mr. Sanghi as the winner of their 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award. Finally, the Wall Street Journal ranked Mr. Sanghi second among the top 28 long-serving CEOs of the S&P 500.
Mr. Sanghi holds a Master of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Massachusetts, and a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics and communication from Punjab University, India.
Hidetoshi Shibata
Hidetoshi Shibata
Representative Director, President and CEO
Renesas Electronics Corporation
Mr. Shibata became Representative Director, President and CEO of Renesas in July 2019. He joined Renesas in November 2013, as Executive Vice President, and CFO. He served on the company’s Board of Directors from November 2013 to May 2016 and from March 2018 to the present. In these roles, Mr. Shibata is credited with having helped to define and execute the restructuring of Renesas’ businesses and successfully leading the acquisitions of two U.S. based semiconductor companies, Intersil and Integrated Device Technology.
Before joining Renesas, he was Executive Managing Director of Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (“INCJ”), a Japanese sovereign investment fund and he sat on the boards of the six companies in which he led investment up until 2013.
Prior to his career at INCJ, he was Managing Director, Global Private Equity, at Merrill Lynch. At the age of 35, he was the youngest Managing Director in their global team. Before Merrill Lynch he worked as Partner at MKS Partners, a private equity firm based in Japan, where he was responsible for various transactions.
Mr. Shibata started his career at Central Japan Railway and played key roles in a large-scale re-engineering project. He also obtained a license to drive Shinkansen bullet trains.
He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BE from the University of Tokyo.
Dr. Siva Sivaram
Dr. Siva Sivaram
President, Technology & Strategy
Western Digital Corporation
Dr. Siva Sivaram is President, Technology and Strategy, at Western Digital where he is responsible for the development of the corporate strategy and the technologies that fuel the company’s growth.
Sivaram has more than 35 years of experience in semiconductor technologies and manufacturing. He has held executive positions at Intel, Matrix Semiconductor and at SanDisk after its acquisition of Matrix. Additionally, he was the founder and CEO of Twin Creeks Technologies, a solar panel and equipment company.
Sivaram has authored numerous technical papers and a textbook on chemical vapor deposition and holds several patents in semiconductor and solar technologies. Sivaram serves on the board of directors of the Global Semiconductor Alliance and the US-India Business Council. He has been on the board of directors and advised several start-up firms and was entrepreneur-in-residence at Crosslink Capital and XSeed Capital. He also serves on the board of Akshaya Patra, the world’s largest NGO dedicated to feeding school children.
Sivaram received his doctorate and master’s degrees in materials science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has been nominated to its Board of Trustees. Additionally, he is a Distinguished Alumnus of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, India, where he received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
Dr. Tien Wu
Dr. Tien Wu
CEO, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. (ASE)
CEO, Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. (USI)
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. (ASE Group)
Dr. Tien Wu is the Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. (ASE) and concurrently the Chief Executive Officer of Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. (USI). He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Chief Operating Officer of the ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE: ASX, TWSE: 3711).
Tien serves as a Board Member of the Global Semiconductor Association (GSA) and SEMI, which are global industry associations serving the manufacturing supply chain for the micro- and nano-electronics industries.
Prior to joining ASE, Tien held several management positions within IBM including R&D, manufacturing and sales in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific. He holds twelve U.S. patents and has authored over twenty-five articles. Tien holds a BSCE degree from Taiwan University, and also earned MS and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics respectively from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2015, Tien received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from Binghamton University.
Kurt Sievers
Kurt Sievers
President and CEO
NXP Semiconductors
Kurt Sievers has served as president and chief executive officer of NXP since May 2020. As a member of NXP’s executive management team since 2009, Kurt has been instrumental in leading the definition and implementation of NXP’s strategy for “secure connections for a smarter world.” Prior to being elected CEO, Kurt served as president of NXP and oversaw all of the company’s business lines. In 2019, Kurt led the successful acquisition of Marvell’s Wi-Fi Connectivity Business Unit, enabling NXP to deliver complete, scalable processing and connectivity solutions to customers across NXP’s focus end markets. In 2015, he played a key role in the merger of NXP and Freescale Semiconductor, which created one of the world’s leading semiconductor companies and a leader in automotive semiconductors and secure edge processing. Kurt joined NXP in 1995, progressing through a series of sales and marketing, product definition and development, strategy and general management leadership positions across a broad number of market segments. Kurt earned a Master of Science degree in physics and information technology from Augsburg University, Germany.
Dr. Haijun Zhao
Dr. Haijun Zhao
Co-CEO and Executive Director
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC)
Dr. Haijun Zhao joined SMIC in October of 2010, has 25 years of experience in semiconductor operations and technology development. Ph.D. in wireless from the University of TsingHua, and MBA from University of Chicago. A states “Thousand Person Plan” distinguished expert and the National Integrated Circuit promotion committee members of China.
Yiming Zhu
Yiming Zhu
Chairman and CEO
ChangXin Memory Technologies, Inc. (CXMT)
Yiming Zhu is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ChangXin Memory Technologies, Inc. (CXMT).
Prior to joining CXMT, Yiming was Chief Executive Officer of GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc. (GigaDevice), which he founded in 2005 and soon became a leading player in the global NOR Flash market. He brought innovative minds and passion to the company to develop products empowering various smart applications. Currently, he also serves as Chairman of GigaDevice.
Yiming is widely credited as a pioneer in China’s memory industry. He has participated in a number of key R&D projects in China and filed more than 50 patents at home and abroad. Yiming has also won numerous honors and awards, including the “Innovator of the Year” by Global Sources and the “IC Design Leader of the Year in China” by China Semiconductor Industry Association IC Design Branch in 2013.
Yiming received his bachelor’s and master’s Degrees from Tsinghua University and another master’s Degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, before starting his career in US as an R&D engineer.