People Moves

From November 23 to November 29

Aviza Adds Industry Vet in Japan
Aviza Technology Inc. has appointed 27-year chip industry vet Masaaki Yashiro as president of Aviza Technology Japan K.K. Yashiro comes to Aviza from The SEZ Group where he served as president and COO of SEZ Japan. Prior to SEZ, he was VP of corporate development and technology at Tokyo
Electron Ltd. Yashiro also worked at Texas Instruments for approximately 15 years.

Veeco Splits CEO-Chairman Roles
Nanotech solutions provider Veeco Instruments Inc. is looking for a new CEO. Edward Braun is set to step down from his post as CEO during 2007 as the company has decided to split the CEO and chairman responsibilities. Veeco's board has formed a succession planning committee to search for and select a new CEO, keeping Braun in the dual role until a new appointee is found. 

Luminescent Snags Intel Litho Expert
Lithography-enhancement products supplier Luminescent Technologies Inc. has named litho expert Bob Gleason its managing director of engineering. Gleason joins Luminescent from Intel Corp., where he spent seven years as an engineering manager and represented Intel on the SEMI task force that developed the OASIS pattern data format. Gleason also led the introduction of OASIS at Intel, and served on the technical team responsible for Intel's lithography strategy.

Celestica's Sudden CEO Switch
Contract electronics maker Celestica Inc. has appointed Craig Muhlhauser to the position of president and CEO, effective immediately. He replaces former CEO Stephen Delaney, who announced his resignation from the CEO post this week "to pursue other business interests"—much to the company's surprise, according to a Reuters report. Muhlhauser was previously Celestica's president, with specific responsibility for worldwide sales and business development. Prior to joining Celestica in May 2005, Muhlhauser was president and CEO of Exide Technologies. Before joining Exide, he served as VP of Ford Motor Co. and president of Visteon Automotive Systems.

Wolfson Founder, CEO Steps Down
In another surprise CEO departure, Wolfson Microelectronics said its founder and longstanding CEO, David Milne, is to step down. Milne, 64, will retire from the post of CEO next February but will remain on the company's board. Dave Shrigley has been appointed as CEO designate, effective immediately. Milne founded the Edinburgh, Scotland-based semiconductor company in 1984 and has served as CEO and managing director ever since. He took the company public on the London Stock Exchange in 2003. Shrigley has worked for 18 years with Intel, spending six years as VP and general manager of Asia Pacific sales and marketing operations before becoming VP and general manager of corporate marketing.

Johnson Joins Mellanox Board
Mellanox Technologies Ltd., a supplier of semiconductor-based interconnect products, has appointed Amal Johnson to its board of directors. Johnson is currently the CEO of MarketTools Inc., a market research company. Prior to joining MarketTools, Johnson was a venture partner of ComVentures L.P. and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Previously, she held executive positions with Baan, Ask Manufacturing Systems and IBM. Johnson also serves on the board of directors of Opsource Inc. and MarketTools Inc.

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From November 16 to November 22

Yahoo Exec on Board at Intel
Chipmaking giant Intel Corp. has added Susan Decker, CFO and executive VP of finance and administration at Yahoo, to the company's board of directors. The company also announced that John Browne, an Intel director since 1997, is retiring from the board. Prior to joining Yahoo in 2000, Decker held a number of positions with Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette during her 14-year career with the investment banking firm.

Tundra Taps ATI, IBM Vet
In more boardroom switch-ups,  Tundra Semiconductor Corp. has added Terry Nickerson to its board of directors. Nickerson's career has included 18 years with IBM Canada, six years at Northern Telecom, and most recently the CFO of ATI Technologies. Nickerson previously held four director positions at Telular Canada, Intepac Corp., Adam Technologies and Americlean Systems. Nickerson succeeds recently resigned Jim Roche, a former CEO and president at Tundra, on the company's board.

Tange Tackles VP Role at Mattson
Paving the way for new hires, Mattson Technology Inc., a supplier of advanced process equipment used to manufacture semiconductors, has appointed Gene Tange its senior VP of organizational capability. Tange will be responsible for cultivating the company's corporate culture, focusing on employee recruiting, development and retention. Tange was most recently a national director of organizational effectiveness for Deloitte Consulting. Previously, he was a cofounder and COO of Fortelus Inc.,  which was acquired by Deloitte.

Nova Nixes R&D Jobs
In the company's effort to save some $2 million over the next year, some 20 people will be making moves away from integrated process control systems maker Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. The company announced this week the launch of a cost-reduction initiative that includes a headcount reduction of approximately 8 percent of its 239-person strong worldwide workforce. The reductions will be mainly in R&D and operations.

Hauck Hops to Bluespec from Faraday
Charlie Hauck has signed on as VP of engineering at Bluespec Inc., which claims to be the developer of the only ESL synthesis for control logic and complex datapaths in chip design. Most recently, Hauck was a general manager for Faraday Technology. Prior to that, he served as VP of engineering at Lexra Inc., a microprocessor SIP company. His resume also includes work at LSI Logic, Kendall Square Research and Commodore.

Solarflare Selects New Sales VP
Ethernet silicon supplier Solarflare Communications has appointed Russ Krapf as VP of sales and business development. Krapf joins Solarflare from ARIO Data Networks, where he was CEO. Prior to that, Krapf was VP of business development in the Fibre Channel connectivity business at JNI Corp. Krapf was also formerly VP of business development at Western Digital Corp., and he has held a number of other CEO and senior executive positions in the past with companies such as Keen Personal Media, Western Digital, Censtor and Seagate.

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From November 9 through November 15Changes to a Mentor Finance Post
There's a new money man at Mentor Graphics Corp. The electronic hardware and software design solutions company has named Ethan Manuel as its new treasurer and officer. For the last four years Manuel served as Mentor's director of financial planning and analysis. Manuel has worked at Mentor Graphics since 1999, when he joined the company as senior financial analyst. Prior to that, he was a financial analyst at PacifiCorp. Manuel replaces former treasurer Arun Arora, who has resigned for personal reasons.

Intersil CEO On Board at Xceive
Intersil Corp.'s CEO, Rich Beyer, has added yet another entry to his long resume. Beyer has joined the board of directors at Xceive Corp., a venture-backed, Santa Clara, Calif.-based developer of fully integrated multi-standard RF-to-baseband transceiver ICs for TVs. Prior to his work at Intersil, Beyer held the position of president, CEO and director for a number of companies including Elantec, FVC.COM, Inc. and VLSI Technology, Inc.  His previous experience also includes serving as executive VP and COO of National Semiconductor Corp. and president of National Semiconductor's communications and computing. Beyer also currently serves as director of Credence Systems Corp. and is currently on the board of directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Laser Society Selects New President
John Marsh, co-founder and CTO at Intense Ltd., a developer of next generation laser modules for printing, defense, and industrial applications, has been appointed president elect of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS). He will serve from Jan. 1, 2007, through Dec. 31, 2007. In 2008, Marsh will assume the role of president of the society, succeeding Professor Alan Willner of the University of Southern California. Marsh is no newcomer to the IEEE. He was a member of the board of governors of the IEEE/LEOS from 1999 through 2005, serving two terms as a VP. He is a Fellow of the UK's IET, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Marsh also holds the post of professor of optoelectronic systems in the department of electronics and electrical engineering at the University of Glasgow.

eSilicon CEO Pulls Rank at RF Micro
Radio systems and solutions developer RF Micro Devices Inc. has added Jack Harding, co-founder, chairman, president and CEO of eSilicon Corp., to its board of directors. Before starting eSilicon Harding served as president and CEO of the publicly-traded Cadence Design Systems, Inc., which acquired his former company, Cooper and Chyan Technology Inc. Harding has held a variety of senior management positions at Zycad Corp. and his career also includes work with TXL and IBM Corp.

From November 2 to November 8

Mosaid Appoints Courtroom Counsel
John Lindgren will have his work cut out for him at litigation-laden Mosaid Technologies, where he has been named senior VP of patent licensing, general counsel and corporate secretary. Lindgren joins Mosaid from Texas Instruments in Dallas, where he served as VP and assistant general counsel. Prior to this role, Lindgren was senior regional counsel for Texas Instruments Japan Ltd., based in Tokyo.  

Staud Moves to Invarium from Cadence
Advanced patterning synthesis solutions provider Invarium has added Wolfgang Staud to its marketing team. As director of marketing, Staud is responsible for product management and positioning, technical partnerships and business development. Before joining Invarium, Staud served for four years at Cadence Design Systems in various marketing and management roles. Prior to Cadence, he was a marketing manager at Applied Materials. He started his career as a lithography manager at Fairchild Semiconductor and LSI Logic. Former Avago CEO on Board at Montage
Fabless IC design company Montage Technology Group has appointed Dick Chang to its board of directors. Chang is currently chairman of Avago Technologies, a privately held semiconductor company headquartered in the United States and Singapore. Chang joined Hewlett-Packard in 1967 as a member of the technical staff at HP Labs. Following that, Chang held exec positions at HP spin-off Agilent Technologies, and then went on to serve as president and CEO of Avago Technologies.

Ticer Director Touted for Developing Spec
Ticer Technologies, a manufacturer of thin film embedded resistor materials, has announced that its director of technical marketing, Rocky Hilburn, earned a leadership award from IPC Association Connecting Electronics Industries for his committee work in developing a new embedded passive specification. Hilburn earned the committee leadership award along with David McGregor, DuPont, and Mahendra Gandhi, Northrop Grumman, for their direction of IPC Subcommittee D-52, which developed IPC-4821, a spec for embedded passive device capacitor materials for rigid and multilayer printed boards.

Cal Prof on Board at Vimicro
Fabless chip company Vimicro has appointed Yingyi Qian as an independent board director and audit committee member. Qian currently serves as dean of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and as a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. He also currently serves as an independent director and audit committee member of China Netcom Group Corp. and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Prior to joining the Berkeley faculty, Qian taught at Stanford University and the University of Maryland.  The company has also announced that Kevin Jin, previously COO and VP of sales at Vimicro, has been appointed president and COO of the company. Jin co-founded Vimicro in 1999 together with John Deng, Vimicro chairman and CEO and Dave Yang, Vimicro CTO.

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From October 26 to November 1

Intersil Drops DiNardo From Prez and COO Posts
After just nine months, Lou DiNardo stint as president and COO of Intersil Corp. has ended. The executive's departure was announced by the Milpitas, Calif.-based company in a vague statement that said DiNardo, who was appointed president and COO in January, "is no longer employed by the company."  The company provided no more comment on his departure. DiNardo joined Intersil in July 2004 as a result of Intersil's acquisition of Xicor. At Xicor, he served as president and CEO. Prior to his last position at Intersil, he was executive VP of the company's power management group. Rich Beyer, Intersil's CEO, will take over DiNardo's former duties.

ARM Adds to Board
Kathleen O'Donovan will join the board at England-based processor related IP provider ARM Holdings plc as an independent non-executive director and a member of the audit committee on December 7.  She is a non-executive director and chairman of the audit committees of Prudential plc and Great Portland Estates PLC and a non-executive director of EMI Group plc.  She is also chairman of the Invensys Pension Scheme.  Previously she was a non-executive director and chairman of the audit committee of the Court of the Bank of England and a non-executive director of O2 plc.  Prior to that, she was CFO of BTR and Invensys, and before that she was a partner at Ernst & Young.

Winchell Walks Into eSilicon
Custom IC maker eSilicon Corp. has announced that W. Blake Winchell has been appointed to its board of directors.  The company said that Winchell has more than 25 years of experience in operating, investing in and consulting to growing, high-technology companies.

Tundra Taps new Sales VP
Tundra Semiconductor Corp.  has announced that Robert Fischer has been promoted to VP of sales, effective immediately. Fischer will lead Tundra's global sales effort across all markets and will report directly to CEO Daniel Hoste. Fischer previously held the position of North American sales director at Tundra, having joined the company in July. Prior to joining Tundra, Fischer held progressively senior sales and applications engineering roles at Xilinx , Avnet Electronics, and Motorola Semiconductor.

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For our past People Move columns, click here .