GSA hires EMEA ED and opens European office

SAN JOSE, USA: The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), the voice of the global semiconductor industry, proudly announced the opening of its European offices and hiring of Sandro Grigolli as its European/Middle-East/Africa (EMEA) executive director. Grigolli will spearhead the GSA’s key European initiatives from its new office in Geneva, Switzerland.

In his new role, Grigolli is responsible for establishing and growing the GSA’s European operations. Grigolli’s primary objective will be to work closely with the GSA EMEA Leadership Council to drive critical programs for the benefit of the European semiconductor community, including KET (Key Enabling Technologies) as well as European government and policy matters. The Council serves as the European voice to GSA’s Board of Directors.

“Grigolli brings a unique perspective to GSA with his knowledge of the European high-tech market and the venture capital (VC) community in Europe,” said Jodi Shelton, president, GSA. “I look forward to working with Sandro and further shaping GSA’s vision and mission in this region.”

Grigolli will oversee GSA’s European membership recruitment and retention. He will play a key role in the planning and implementation of GSA events and research initiatives in the EMEA region. These efforts will enhance GSA’s mission to promote collaboration in the semiconductor ecosystem with an emphasis on Europe’s contribution as a global semiconductor player.

"I am looking forward to put my extensive business background - combining venture capital, management consulting and academia - to good use in supporting the European semiconductor community in its continuous innovation and growth," said Grigolli, GSA’s EMEA executive director. "I am very excited to strengthen and extend to EMEA GSA's successful mission as a unified voice for the industry, favoring cooperation among all players, sharing information and best practices. I look forward to working closely with Jodi Shelton and the rest of the GSA team."

Grigolli is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship, regularly teaching MBA and undergraduate courses at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining the GSA, Grigolli was also a co-founder and managing partner of EonTech Ventures, a VC firm that invested in several European high-growth technology companies.

Grigolli previously headed New Ventures and Business Development at 3Com, where he managed marketing and launched several successful products for the company. He was also a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.

Grigolli started his career as a scientific researcher at IBM where he worked on automatic speech recognition, then went onto developing software process modeling at Politecnico di Milano.

Grigolli is currently working towards obtaining his Doctorate of Business Administration at the Grenoble Ecole de Management. He earned his MBA from INSEAD, and has a Master’s degree in electronic engineering and in software engineering from Politecnico di Milano and CEFRIEL.