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Ciranova Board of Directors
- Katherine Jen - Managing Partner, Asiatech Management
- Jim Solomon - Founder, Cadence Design Systems
- Jim Hogan - Private Investor
- Dan Rubin - General Partner, Alloy Ventures
- Dr. Winston Fu - General Partner, U.S. Venture Partners
- Eric Filseth - Ciranova™ CEO
- Ed Petrus - Ciranova COO & Vice President of Engineering
Katherine Jen
Managing Partner, Asiatech Management
A seasoned investment executive and a pioneer in Taiwan's venture capital industry, Katherine has substantial experience in finance, deal structuring, and venture capital investment. As a leader in the growth of Taiwan's technology industry during the 1980s, she led the $3 billion Taiwan Government Development Fund and was responsible for the investment of many leading technology companies in Taiwan, including TSMC and Mosel-Vitelic. Serving as a Director on the Board since the inception of TSMC, Katherine had been heavily involved with the company's strategic decisions and was instrumental in its eventual growth into world's largest semiconductor foundry.
Katherine also led the fund-of-funds investment of the Taiwan Government Development Fund, facilitated the formation and led the investment in Taiwan's first group of venture funds, including H&Q Asia Taiwan, Walden International Taiwan, Hotung Capital. She also served on board of the International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest commercial bank in Taiwan.
Katherine served on the board of many leading technology companies including TSMC, Mosel-Vitelic, NetScreen, Protego Networks, Sebring, Warpspeed, and Reflectivity, NetLogic. Her current board seats include Ciranova, Stonewall Networks, Optimal, Intoto, Mediabolic and Knowlent.
Katherine received her LLB from National Taiwan University.
James E. Solomon
Founder Cadence Design Systems, Founder/CEO Xulu, Founder/Chairman Smart Machines
Jim is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in the semiconductor and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) industries. Solomon is a Fellow of the IEEE, holds 23 patents in IC design, and is the author of over 50 technical papers. His best known work on design theory for the monolithic op amp is still taught in universities. In 1997 he was the recipient of the EDAC Phil Kaufman Award for his contributions to design automation.
In 1995, he co-founded Xulu Entertainment where he served as President and CEO. In 1994, Solomon co-founded and became Chairman of Smart Machines, Inc., which designs and manufacturers high performance direct-drive robotics used to manufacture semiconductor wafers. Smart Machines was acquired by Brooks Automation in 1999, and the Smart robots are now widely used in modern wafer fab facilities.
In 1983, he founded Solomon Design Automation (SDA Systems), later renamed Cadence Design Systems. Over 12 years he held various roles including President and CEO, founder & General Manager of the Analog & Mixed Signal unit, General Manager of the IC unit, and Chief Technical Officer for the company. Today Cadence is the largest electronic design automation company in the world with annual revenues over $1 billion. From 1970 until 1983, he was Director of IC Design for Analog and Mixed Signal chips at National Semiconductor. Starting in 1960, he worked for Motorola, eventually starting and running Linear IC Design at Motorola Semiconductor in Tempe, Arizona. He holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from the University of California, Berkeley CA. Jim serves on the boards of Ciranova, Silicon Navigator, AWR, Pyxis, and Nascentric.
James H. Hogan - Private Investor
Executive Vice President Artisan Components, Executive Vice President Cadence Design Systems
Jim has worked in the semiconductor industry for over three decades. His experience includes time as a senior executive in electronic design automation, semiconductor intellectual property, semiconductor equipment, and fabrication companies.
From 2004-2006, Jim was a General Partner at the investment firm Telos Venture Partners. Immediately prior to joining Telos, Jim was Senior Vice President of Business Development of Artisan Components. Previously, Jim was Senior Vice President of Business Development and the senior member of the Office of Chief Technologist at Cadence Design Systems. Jim was a Cadence Executive Fellow and held several positions at Cadence including President of Cadence Japan, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, and Corporate Vice President for Field Operations. He was also Chief Operating Officer of Smart Machines, Inc., a semiconductor equipment automation company. Jim also worked for National Semiconductor for and Philips for over 13 years. At both companies, he established device physics laboratories globally. Jim's interest in process and design automation for integrated circuits grew from his experiences between 1972 and 1982 at his family's business, which developed semiconductor packaging equipment. Jim holds a BA degree in mathematics, a BS degree in computer science and an MBA from San Jose State University. In addition to Ciranova, Jim serves on the Board of Advisors at San Jose State's School of Engineering.
Dan Rubin - Partner, Alloy Ventures (Chairman of the Board)
Founder/Vice President Artisan Components
Daniel I. Rubin joined Alloy Ventures in 1999. He received a BA in Physics from Pomona College (1982). In 1991 he was a co-founder of Artisan Components and the initial VP of Sales and Marketing. He was the VP of Business Development through their initial public offering in 1998. Prior to Artisan Components Mr. Rubin worked at Ultratech Stepper in many roles including Director of Product Marketing and Managing Director of Asian Operations. Dan is a director of Ciranova, Ensenda, Molecular Imprints, Nexsil and Gradient, and a board observer at Ellie Mae and Integrated Materials, Inc.
Winston Fu - General Partner, US Venture Partners
Dr. Winston Fu has been a general partner at U.S. Venture Partners since 2000. At USVP, Winston focuses on investments that apply semiconductor, photonics and related technologies to a variety of markets. Winston has been a particularly active investor in companies addressing the widening gap between the design and the manufacturing of semiconductors. Winston joined USVP an associate in August 1997, following his selection as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow in Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining USVP, Winston served in a variety of technical and marketing roles at Vixel Corporation, (NASDAQ:VIXL was acquired by Emulex:ELX in 2003) where he helped develop vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for the gigabit Ethernet and fiber channel markets. Prior to Vixel, Winston researched and developed technologies in the areas of semiconductors, lasers, and superconductors at Stanford University, Sandia National Laboratory, and MIT, resulting in numerous technical publications. Winston holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from MIT, a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where he was an Austin Scholar. Winston serves on the boards of Brion Technologies, Ciranova, Clear Shape Technologies, Maskless Lithography, Ponte Solutions, Princeton Lightwave, and Teknovus.
Eric Filseth - Ciranova CEO
Eric has 23 years experience in the EDA and semiconductor industry, spanning both analog and digital design. Prior to joining Ciranova in 2007, he served as marketing vice president for digital implementation products at Cadence Design Systems, including logic synthesis, formal verification, place-and-route, and DFM. Before that he held executive marketing and business development positions at Silicon Perspective Corporation and Sente, Inc. Previously Eric spent ten years marketing analog, RF and mixed-signal products at Cadence. He started his career in 1983 as an amplifier design engineer with National Semiconductor. He received an MBA from UCLA and a BSEE from Stanford University.
Ed Petrus - Ciranova COO & VP of Engineering
Ed joined Ciranova in the summer of 2004 bringing with him 20 years of experience in building engineering teams and developing complex software systems. Ed spent 10 years at Cadence Design Systems where he was a key architect and developer of SKILL® and other components of Cadence's DFII technology. Before Cadence, Ed started his career in EDA as a software engineer at Daisy Systems. Ed has also held engineering management positions at Military Advantage and Nanomix. Ed holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom.