Applied forms silicon systems group

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 6/20/2007

Following the resignation of Applied Materials' senior VP and general manager of the thin films product business group Farhad Moghadam, the company has named senior VP Tom St. Dennis as general manager of the company's newly-created silicon systems group, effective immediately. 

St. Dennis assumes responsibility for a consolidated product business group that encompasses Applied's portfolio of semiconductor manufacturing systems including the product business groups responsible for the development, manufacturing and supply chain management of products for thin films deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, wet clean, etch, rapid thermal processing, epi, track and metrology and inspection.

"There are increasing opportunities for synergies across product platforms, engineering, manufacturing and the supply chain that support this move to a single silicon group," Mike Splinter, president and CEO of Applied, said in a statement. "We believe this change will also improve our innovation on the next-generation technologies that are critical to our customers. Tom is a proven leader with the right experience to capture the full potential of this new unified organization."

St. Dennis' more than 25 years of semiconductor industry experience includes his previous leadership of Applied's physical vapor deposition and planarization and dielectric deposition product business groups. He rejoined Applied in 2005 as senior VP and general manager of Applied's etch, cleans, front end and implant product business groups. From 1999 to 2003, he was president and CEO of Wind River Systems. St. Dennis holds bachelors and masters degrees in physics from UCLA.

Finally, Applied said that Moghadam resigned to pursue other interests.