Ron Das, Ph.D. President & CEO
Ron has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry in building business operations and successful fabless start-up companies. Most recently, Ron was CEO of Siliconaire, a company with a pioneering business model serving the fabless semiconductor market and helping several start-ups in their success. Previously, Ron was VP of Operations at Atheros Communications where he built the business infrastructure and partnerships to take the world's first CMOS 802.11a/b/g chipset into high volume manufacturing leading to a successful IPO. Before Atheros, Ron was VP of Operations at NewPort Communications, where he helped in building the company business towards a successful acquisition by Broadcom. Ron also held executive level positions at Cirrus Logic and AMD where he managed various joint ventures of significant size with companies like IBM, Lucent and Fujitsu. Ron is a former board member of the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA). Ron holds a doctoral degree in Electircal Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Denis Masliah Founder & CTO
Denis has a broad experience in semiconductor power amplifier development with knowledge in GaAs-based and Silicon-based devices. Possessing more than 25 years of experience in the development of technology-based businesses, Denis founded ACCO Semiconductor with his breakthrough fundamental device innovation for realizing CMOS power amplifiers for the handset market. Prior to that, Denis also founded ACCO SA as a design service company developing Analog, RF and Microwave circuits, growing the company to 40 people with multi-million dollar contracts. Denis also worked successively for THOMSON CSF, M/A-COM, RAYTHEON and PHILIPS, holding positions in the development of power amplifiers and transceiver circuits. Denis holds a master degree from ISEP, France.
Richard Irving POND Ventures
Based in Silicon Valley, Richard co-founded Pond in 1997 and brings over 25 years' experience in venture capital, business management, marketing and engineering in technology companies including AT&T Bell Labs, AMD, Brooktree, and Irving International. Starting as a chip designer at Bell Labs, and strategic marketing manager at AMD, Richard later managed multiple business units at Brooktree with full P&L responsibility both prior to and following the company's initial public offering. Richard has been involved in numerous IPOs, acquisitions, and private financings. Richard's expertise includes semiconductors, hardware, and wireless. Richard also served as Director of Giggle Semiconductor, Emefcy Ltd., Mirics and Nanotech, and investor representative at Picochip. Richard has a B.Sc. (1st Class Hons.) and an M.Sc in Electrical Engineering from Manchester University.
Rich Redelfs Foundation Capital
Rich joined Foundation Capital in 2004 after more than 20 years in networking and communications, amassing a combination of start-up entrepreneurial as well as large company intrapreneurial experience. Prior to joining the Foundation team, he was president and CEO of Atheros Communications, which he helped build into the leading provider of Wi-Fi wireless semiconductors. Rich received Frost & Sullivan's prestigious "Wireless LAN CEO of the Year" award in 2003. Previously, Rich was vice president and general manager of 3Com's Wireless and Home Connectivity Division. He spent more than ten years at 3com in various sales, marketing, and general management positions including vice president of Marketing and later acting general manager for the Mobile Communications Division. Prior to 3Com, Rich was chief operating officer of Polygon, a communications software start-up. Rich also serves on the board of Dust Network, Transphorm, Mobius, Prematics, and SiBeam. Rich holds a BSIE from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Tim Wilson Partech International
Tim joined Partech International in 2001 and focuses on communications and components investments. Between 1997 and 2001, Tim was the Chief Marketing Officer for Digital Island, a Partech portfolio company. The company was acquired by Cable & Wireless in 2001 for $350M. Prior to Digital Island, Tim was a General Manager at Lucent Technology where he led the international voice communications product management team (now Avaya) with P&L for product lines generating over $2B in annual sales and coauthored a VOIP related patent. Before Lucent, Tim held a variety of senior management positions within AT&T (North America and Australia) and AT&T Bell Labs from 1983-1995. Tim also sits on the board of Array Converter, Invensense, Five9, LedEngin and Prysm. Tim graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin College receiving his undergraduate degree in Physics. He received his MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business where he was named a Fuqua Scholar.
Renaud Poulard Crιdit Agricole Private Equity (CAPE)
Renaud began his career at the CEO (French Atomic Energy Commission) as a Research Engineer in lasters. he joined SAT in 1991 where he furthered his career as an Engineer and later Project Manager focusing in particular on telecoms networks and data transfer technologies. After the takover of SAT by Sagem in 1996, he bacame Head of Programming on optoelectronics equipment and later worked on a business development project on the IT security markets (PKI). In 2001 he was appointed Head of Programming on optoelectronics equipment and later worked on a business development project on the IT security markets (PKI). In 2001 he was appointed Head of Investments and later General Partner at SPEF eFund (Natexis group). He also sits on the board of Scality, 3D+, H2i, Oxatis et Confortvisuel. He graduated from the School of Optics in 1990 and holds an MBA from INSEAD.
Doug Spreng Independent Board Member
Doug Spreng is a 40+-year high tech industry veteran who has held leadership positions with numerous high-profile semiconductor and equipment companies in the computer and communications market. Most recently, he was Chairman and CEO of Ubicom, Inc., a leading supplier of communication processors for wireless LAN applications. Before that, he was president and COO at AMCC, a publicly traded communications IC company. His position at AMCC resulted from an acquisition by AMCC of MMC Networks, a public fabless communications semiconductor company where he was president and CEO. Prior to his tenure at MMC Networks, he was executive vice president of the Client Access Business Unit at 3Com Corporation, where he was responsible for the company's $2 billion network interface card and modem businesses. During this period, he made many acquisitions of private technology companies to complement the 3Com product portfolio. He has also held executive positions at CellNet Data Systems and Hewlett-Packard Company. Doug holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Harvard University