GSA announces results of 2010 BOD elections

SAN JOSE, USA: The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) announces the results of its 2010 Board of Directors’ member election and one new board appointment. The GSA BOD defines the organization’s strategic vision and direction.

Dr. Roawen Chen, vice president of manufacturing operations, Marvell Semiconductor, was elected to fill the only open semiconductor position, which will run for a three-year term.

With 15 years of global semiconductor experience, Dr. Chen brings a plethora of industry knowledge and experience, spanning foundry business and engineering operations to world-class business development, strategies of cross-continental partnerships and visionary leadership for global marketing and business plans.

Dr. Chen joined Marvell Semiconductor in 2000, managing foundry operations and contributing to the company’s growth and business infrastructure. He was promoted to vice president of manufacturing operations in 2005 and has since held other titles and responsibilities within the company.

Between 2007 and 2009, Dr. Chen expanded his role to include general manager for Marvell’s connectivity business unit – spearheading the communications and computing business unit and managing consumer-driven, popular product lines, such as Marvell’s smartphone platforms, ARM-based application processors and power management ICs. Dr. Chen’s efforts, commitment and accomplishments enrich both Marvell and the semiconductor industry.

Prior to Marvell, Dr. Chen held technical positions at TSMC and Intel Corp. Dr. Chen holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from National Tsing-Hua University and a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC-Berkeley.

“I am honored to be elected to serve in this leadership role for the GSA,” said Dr. Chen. “GSA has significantly contributed to the well-being of the industry and I look forward to leveraging my experience to build on the strong foundation that has been established.”

Due to the emergence and increasing reliance on the outsourced operations model, GSA strategically added a value chain producer (VCP) position to represent the growing number of companies that both offer and utilize this model. A VCP is defined as a company that collaborates with foundries, IP and service providers, EDA suppliers, package, assembly and test operations in designing and producing chips for fabless IC, IDM and OEM companies.

VCPs optimize the economics of customer value chains and enable customers to focus on their product differentiation and market growth. VCPs earn revenue by shipping packaged, tested products with the customers' logo.

Jack Harding, chairman, president and chief executive officer of eSilicon Corp., was elected to the new value chain producer position and will serve a two-year term. Jack previously served on the GSA board of directors in a semiconductor position for three years. He also serves on the GSA Finance Committee.

Jack Harding brings more than 20 years of executive management experience in the electronics industry to eSilicon. Prior to co-founding eSilicon, he served as president and CEO of Cadence Design Systems; during his tenure, Cadence was the world's largest supplier of electronic design automation (EDA) software. Harding entered Cadence upon the acquisition of Cooper & Chyan Technology (CCT), where he served as the president and CEO, and was responsible for taking the company public. Prior to CCT, Harding served as executive vice president of Zycad Corporation. He began his career with distinction at IBM.

Harding earned his bachelor's degree in economics and chemistry from Drew University and attended Stern School of Business at New York University. Mr. Harding has held various directorships in both public and private organizations and is currently on the Board of Directors of RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ: RFMD).

Harding has also held leadership roles at Drew University and Indiana University where he was Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and a member of its School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) Advisory Board. In the public policy arena Mr. Harding has served as a member of the Steering Committee at the US Council on Competitiveness and was a former National Academies' Committee member for Software, Growth and the Future of the U.S. Economy. He is a frequent international speaker on the topics of innovation, entrepreneurship and semiconductor trends and policies.

“I am honored to be elected to GSA’s Board as the first VCP director,” said Harding. “GSA recognized the importance of the VCP market and I look forward to representing the needs and concerns of the VCP market which includes the VCPs, customers and the supply chain companies that are part of the ecosystem.”

In addition to the two elected members, GSA’s board appointed Dr. Douglas Grose, chief executive officer of GLOBALFOUNDRIES to represent the foundry director position left vacant when Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing was acquired by Advanced Technology Investment Company LLC (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi and subsequently merged with GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

In his role as chief executive officer, Grose defines the vision and global business strategy of GLOBALFOUNDRIES as it charts new ground in leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing innovation. Prior to joining GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Grose served as senior vice president of technology development, manufacturing and supply chain for Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). In this role, he managed AMD’s global manufacturing and process technology operations, including AMD fabrication facilities, AMD foundry relationships and AMD’s global supply chain.

Prior to joining AMD in 2007, Grose spent 25 years at IBM as general manager of technology development and manufacturing for the systems and technology group. Before joining IBM, Grose was an executive vice president and chief operating officer of Nanotech Resources, Inc. Grose holds a doctorate degree in materials engineering and a master’s degree in business administration and science.

“The GSA is one of the preeminent organizations in the semiconductor industry and I am pleased to join such an esteemed group of leaders with this appointment. I look forward to working with my fellow board members to build a strong and diverse ecosystem that identifies challenges and opportunities in the marketplace that create new value for the semiconductor industry as a whole,” stated Doug Grose.

The 2010 GSA board members offer the necessary leadership that will guide the semiconductor industry to continued success. In its 15 years, GSA has consistently broadened its global representation that now consists of a membership base spanning large multinational corporations to start-up companies in their initial funding phase. Geographically, GSA represents every major region within the semiconductor industry. The Alliance has expanded its international presence in the EMEA and Asia by adding Regional Leadership Directors to the board.

“We welcome our 2010 directors and are pleased to have such astute thought leaders who share the vision of our organization,” said Jodi Shelton, co-founder and president of GSA. “The broad range of companies represented reflects the entire supply chain, whose varying perspectives provide direction to address the opportunities and challenges of the global semiconductor industry.”

A total of 25 board members will provide their leadership in 2010. In addition to the three new GSA board members, returning members include:

* Dr. Nicky Lu, GSA board chairman, chairman and CEO, Etron Technology Inc.
* Joep Van Beurden, GSA board vice chairman, CEO, CSR Plc
* Jodi Shelton, GSA co-founder and president
* Dr. Craig Barratt, president and chief executive officer, Atheros Communications
* Danny Biran, senior vice president of marketing, Altera Corp.
Rick Cassidy, president, north America, TSMC
* Guillaume d’Eyssautier, CEO, ADD Semiconductor
* Dr. Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO, Synopsys
* Colin Harris, chief operating officer, PMC-Sierra
* Ana Molnar Hunter, vice president of technology, system LSI, Samsung Semiconductor
* Mark Ireland, vice president, semiconductor platforms, IBM
* Kenneth Joyce, president and CEO, Amkor Technology
* Neil Kim, senior vice president, operations and central engineering, Broadcom
* Loic Lietar, corporate VP, corporate business development, STMicroelectronics
* Steve Michael, vice president of operations and R&QA, Exar Corp.
* Steve Mollenkopf, executive VP and president, QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies (QCT)
* Dr. Naveed Sherwani, founder, president and CEO, Open-Silicon
* Deborah Shoquist, executive vice president of operations, NVIDIA Corp.
* Lip-Bu Tan, president and CEO, Cadence Design Systems Inc.
* Vincent Tong, senior VP, worldwide quality and new product introductions, Xilinx
* Jason Wang, president, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC USA)
* Dr. Tien Wu, director and COO, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE Inc.) and CEO, ISE Labs.