Dongbu HiTek targets European semiconductor market

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Dongbu HiTek has kicked off its strategy to expand its European presence by opening a sales office in Nice, France with plans to open another in Milan, Italy later this year.

The European offices promise to provide the most comprehensive and responsive semiconductor foundry services to European customers while also being instrumental in expanding the Korean company’s customer base in the region, currently numbering about ten customers.

The inaugural office in Nice will be managed by French-born Christophe Bianchi who brings more than 20 years of hands-on high-tech sales, marketing, engineering, and management experience to his new post.

“The European region has traditionally been bullish in semiconductors for automobiles and industrial analog semiconductors,” said Jae Song, VP of Analog Foundry Sales & Marketing at Dongbu HiTek. “With Europe commanding about a 20 percent share of the worldwide semiconductor market, Dongbu HiTek’s expanding presence here is well timed to capture new analog and mixed-signal business opportunities especially as the global economy gradually recovers.”

Prior to joining Dongbu HiTek, Bianchi was the managing director of Third Millennium Marketing, a management consultancy with an international client base. Before this he was the global sales director for Cadence Design Systems responsible for Europe’s wireless ecosystem comprising ST Microelectronics, Ericsson and Nokia.

Earlier in his career, he was VP of marketing for Simplex Solutions before it was acquired by Cadence Design Systems. Bianchi holds a Ph.D. in Microelectronics plus a Masters Degree in Semiconductor Physics from the National Institute of Applied Sciences – Lyon (France). He also holds an Executive MBA from the University of London – Imperial College (Tanaka Business School).

According to Dongbu HiTek, its sales offices are staffed with technology specialists who provide on-site customer service. The company plans to further expand its global sales network in the near future with offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Osaka, Japan. The overarching goal of this expansion is to build a real-time customer support system that can meet all customer requests around the globe within 24 hours.