C Suite Spotlight

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Sumeet Kumar, co-founder and CEO, Innatera

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey talks with Sumeet Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Innatera.

Sumeet is an experienced technologist with a background in leading strategic R&D efforts to bring innovative technologies to light. He’s also one of the modern pioneers in spiking neural network processors. Sumeet got his PhD in multiprocessors from Delft University of Technology and went on to hold product engineering positions at Indrion Technologies and Intel.

After spending time in the commercial sector, he returned UT Delft where he conceived, launched, and led multiple EU-funded R&D programs worth over €100M. Then in 2018, Sumeet and colleagues from UT Delft spun out Inntera to leverage over a decade of research in brain-inspired computing to build a company focused on energy-efficient edge AI, and they’ve been growing ever since.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Andrew Baker, co-founder and CEO, Orca Semi

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, VP of Recruiting Jason Dubin talks with Andrew Baker, co-founder and CEO of Orca Semi.  

Andrew has over two decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, having led high-performing teams in Applications, Marketing, Product, and Business at Intersil, Freescale, and Maxim Integrated and driven hundreds of millions in revenue. He helped them break into large global markets like handheld devices, consumer wearables, and IoT.

After a successful career at big companies, Andrew co-founded Orca Semi in 2022 with two colleagues to solve the gaps in analog IC circuit design. Orca’s mission is to empower customers to achieve their design goals through a unique approach that emphasizes deep partnership, customization, and design flow efficiency, and Andrew shares his deep insights in this episode.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Bob Beachler, VP of Product, Untether AI

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey talks with Bob Beachler, VP of Product at Untether AI. Bob is a seasoned Product Development and Marketing leader with Silicon Valley roots and deep semiconductor experience with some of the industry’s foremost companies like Altera, Exar, and Xilinx.

After a successful career at larger organizations, he ventured into the world of startups, first at BrainChip, then Analog Inference, and later over to Untether AI.

With a track record of success in developing industry-first products ranging from FPGAs to vision processing and AI acceleration chips, there are few professionals as fit for the task of improving the efficiency of inference from the datacenter to the Edge as Bob. His vision and product leadership have put Untether’s SpeedAI, RunAI, and TsunAImi products on the map next to the industry’s largest companies where they’re competing and winning in performance metrics.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Bel Lazar, CEO EPC Space

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, VP of Recruiting Jason Dubin talks with Bel Lazar, CEO of EPC Space. Bel is a seasoned leader in the semiconductor industry with over 30 years of business and operations management at companies like Microsemi and International Rectifier. He has led hundred-million-dollar business units in aerospace and defense sectors and has overseen 17 M&A transactions, showcasing his business acumen and ability to spot market opportunities.

Bel was the CEO of Freebird Semiconductor before reconnecting with Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion. Bel and Alex had worked together at International Rectifier. Bel joined EPC in 2015 and became COO. Then, in 2020, he and Alex decided spun lout EPC Space as a joint venture with VPT Inc to focus on bringing rad-hard GaN power devices to the aerospace and defense markets. Bel is currently CEO of EPC Space and leads them in developing GaN solutions for advanced space projects.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Alex Lidow, CEO Efficient Power Converstion

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, VP of Recruiting Jason Dubin talks with Alex Lidow, CEO and co-founder of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC). Alex has been responsible for influential advancements in power semiconductors and the broader semiconductor industry throughout his expansive career. The former CEO of International Rectifier co-invented the HEXFET power MOSFET, earned over 20 patents in Silicon and GaN power devices, and co-authored the book “GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion” which has become a go-to textbook for engineering students.

His publications have been peer-reviewed hundreds of times and he’s even been requested to appear before Congress as an industry expert. Alex chose the path of entrepreneurship while in his 50’s, deciding to co-found EPC in 2007. He is currently their CEO and leads the company AND the industry in GaN-based semiconductor innovations to improve the power efficiency of electrical systems worldwide.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Roger Peene, VP of Product and Business Development, MemryX

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey talks with Roger Peene, VP of Product and Business Development at MemryX. Roger has 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry at leading companies including AMD, Intel, PMC-Sierra, and most recently as VP and General Manager of the Datacenter SSD Solutions Business at Micron.

Roger brings his proven global sales and business development experience to MemryX where he leverages his knowledge of the silicon product lifecycle to build their ecosystem of premier customers and partners.

He also oversees the development and launch of memory solutions that enable faster, smarter, and more efficient data processing and storage, focusing on creating innovative solutions for companies that want to deploy artificial intelligence at the Edge.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Niraj Mathur, co-founder and COO Blumind

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey talks with Niraj Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Blumind. Niraj is a seasoned technical executive who earned his BSCE from McGill University in Toronto and later earned his MBA through Cornell. He began his career in high-speed networking and data transport at Nortel and also held roles at Quake, Applied Micro, Gennum, Semtech, and Rambus.

While exploring why his top customers continually wanted to increase their intra-network bandwidth, he discovered that the emergence of machine learning and AI applications was driving demand and conceived an idea to solve the problem in a unique way. He linked up with his co-founder Mark Gosson and the duo formed Blumind with a focus on leveraging analog architecture to create neuromorphic compute chips that closely mimic the human brain, resulting in 100-1000x greater efficiency over legacy digital approaches.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Dan Nisson, CEO and Atif Zafar, Chief Scientist X-Silicon

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey talks with Dan Nilsson, CEO and Atif Zafar, Chief Scientist, of X-Silicon. Dan has an extensive background in the graphics/GPU sector and developed some of the earliest graphics architectures used worldwide at companies like Qualcomm, AMD, ATI, and his various startups.

Atif is a highly-regarded medical doctor with more than three decades of experience in the graphics acceleration space – who’s pedigree spans roles at Visual Dynamics and serving as CTO of his own company, Pixilica – before he and Dan united to form X-Silicon.

X-Silicon’s thesis is that current IP platforms were designed in the PC and smartphone age and are unable to evolve in today’s high-compute era. They promise to introduce a new compute paradigm, one that is designed for personalized cognitive tasks at the edge.

SBT C Suite Spotlight – Albert Liu, CEO Kneron

In this installment of the C Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey talks with Albert Liu, CEO of Kneron. Albert earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and has been awarded over 30 patents in the field of Artificial Intelligence and neural networks. After his studies, Albert entered the semiconductor industry and held high level R&D and Managerial positions at both Qualcomm and Samsung, where he pushed the boundaries of vision systems and machine learning system development.

He founded Kneron in 2015, driven by his passion for Edge AI and machine learning and a mission introduce “The Age of AI Everywhere” by enabling these technologies on devices around the world. Today, Albert and his team help companies realize the potential of Edge AI and Kneron is democratizing AI from their centralized cloud “brain”, a platform they call Kneo, a no-code platform that enables distributed AI inferencing capabilities.

SBT Executive Spotlight: Srini Ananth, Managing Director Intel Capital

In this installment of the Executive Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey hosts Srini Ananth, Managing Director of Intel Capital. Srini earned his MSEE from ASU, later earning a MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He was an engineer at Texas Instruments for 9 years and developed chips that brought over $1.5B in revenue, then joined Intel and led the GTM strategy for a cybersecurity SaaS product, then spearheaded acquisitions and partnerships at Intel Media.

With an eye for spotting emerging trends and the ability to foster strong relationships, Srini played a key role in building Intel’s mobile communications and IoT divisions. His passion for investing led him to join Intel Capital in 2015 and he now focuses on investing in the Silicon and Cloud domain. A handful of his notable investments include Ayar Labs, Astera Labs, and Eliyan, and successful IPO exits including Joby Aviation. Srini also serves as a board observer for several of his portfolio companies.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Richard Fung, CEO The Six Semiconductor

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey has a conversation with CEO of The Six Semiconductor, Richard Fung. Richard has a remarkable background – not only is he an engineer, but he also played guitar in a rock band and wrote the band’s lyrics! His career in analog design began at the legendary ATI Technologies Inc. in 2000 and his first venture into leadership came in 2007 when ATI was acquired by AMD and he began managing the full-custom IO design team.

Richard stayed with ATI/AMD for 11 years, then made a move to Peraso Technologies and became their Director of R&D. He later founded a consultancy and in 2018, Richard and four past ATI colleagues reunited and decided to form The Six Semiconductor with the goal to become the industry leader in memory sub-system PHY IP. They are currently on the front lines of tackling some of the biggest challenges in memory optimization.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Charlie Su, CTO, Andes Technology

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey has a conversation with CTO of Andes Technology, Charlie Su. A veteran of the semiconductor industry, Charlie has over three decades of experience in the field and built his career at fast-paced startups like Silicon Graphics, C-Cube Microsystems and Afara. He has made key contributions to to the industry, including architecting several advanced processors such as the Sun Ultrasparc T1 and T2.

In 2005, he and colleagues Frankwell Lin and Ming-Kai Tsai founded Andes Technology and Charlie established their R&D and Technical Marketing organizations. He has since led product planning and development and led the Andes Technology team through a transformational change in 2016 when they incorporated RISC-V into the company’s 5th generation AndeStar.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Scott Lingren, President-Americas Schunk Xycarb

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, VP of Recruiting Jason Dubin has a conversation with Global Technology Executive Scott Lingren. Scott is an accomplished executive with over 30 years of business strategy, operations, sales, and people leadership experience for global giants such as AT&T, Nokia, Dell, Freescale/NXP and Schunk Xycarb Technology.

In each role along his career path, Scott succeeded in fostering relationships with customers and industry partners and has built teams that transform organizations. Scott has also played a key role in representing the semiconductor industry concerning the strategy and administration of funds associated with the CHIPS Act and has held vital discussions with policymakers such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Jennifer Crow, VP of Operations, Tenstorrent

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, Justin Kinsey has a conversation with Jen Crow, VP of Operations at Tenstorrent. Jen is a global executive who has led operations for large companies like AMD and Intel. Her experience is now being directed to helping Tenstorrent  – one of the fastest-growing startups in RISC-V and chiplet technology for AI/ML – perform global expansion.

Jen has been instrumental in helping build Tenstorrent from an 80-person company to an over 400 person company with a presence in regions across the world. She’s opened new offices, oversees Accounting, HR and recruiting, and is the vital “glue” that keeps many of the functional parts of the company together and working in order as they most fast and innovate.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Shashi Chilappagari, CTO DeGirum

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey has a conversation and receives a demo from CTO of DeGirum, Shashi Chilappagari. Shashi is an experienced technical executive with nearly two decades of driving innovation. He began his career at Marvell and focused on System Architecture/R&D pioneering new data paths for NAND flash controllers and earning dozens of patents.

DeGirum was co-founded by Shashi and Winston Lee after an introduction by the co-founder of Marvell. They are radically simplifying the process of choosing the right hardware/software for AI/ML applications and Shashi and his team have developed an easy-to-use AI acceleration platform as well as a line of accelerators that enable engineers and developers to significantly improve the power and performance of their systems.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Hugh Chow, CEO of VentureLAB

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, Justin Kinsey has a conversation with Hugh Chow, CEO of VentureLAB. Hugh is a seasoned global executive with 30 years of experience in innovation, technology, investing, corporate governance, sustainability, R&D, management, and much more. His experience is an invaluable resource that supports every startup that joins a VentureLAB cohort.

He took his first leap into entrepreneurship when he co-founded ViXS Systems and has never looked back. Hugh has founded venture firms to help elevate companies in deep-tech, sustainability, and ESG practices and holds advisory positions with multiple organizations that help advance technology companies in Canada, Hong Kong, and other global regions.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC V International

In this installment of the C-Suite Spotlight, Justin Kinsey has a conversation with Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International. Calista’s early career was focused on building startups and after growing four successful startups of her own, she moved to IBM and started creating partnership ecosystems around open source technologies.

With a large and well-respected global platform, Calista leverages her influence and experience to help advance the use of RISC-V around the world. In this conversation, she shares her perspective on the proliferation of RISC-V and where she sees RISC-V growing in the years ahead. Calista and Justin also find common ground in one of Calista’s passions: the advancement of opportunities for women in technology companies.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Arun Iyengar, past CEO and current Advisor to Untether AI

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, Justin Kinsey has a conversation with Arun Iyengar, CEO of Untether AI. Arun’s background encompasses both technical and business experience and in this discussion, he shares his perspective on topics ranging from the criticality of improving the energy efficiency of AI/ML workloads to practical use cases for AI at the Edge.

Arun also shares how Untether is enabling all of this to happen with a clear focus on energy efficiency, and how sustainable AI and Edge inference are critical for the long-term success of these technologies. Arun even shares practical advice for startup executives who are building teams, infusing the talk with strategies about hiring people who are a good cultural fit and mission-oriented.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Shrijeet Mukherjee, Co-Founder and CDO of Enfabrica

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, Justin Kinsey has a conversation with Shrijeet Mukherjee, the Co-Founder and Chief Development Officer at Enfabrica.

Their conversation traverses topics ranging from Shrijeet’s perspective about where the networking and the AI/ML sectors are heading, to how he and Enfabrica’s co-founder Rochan Sankar are addressing the growth of their company by attracting the right people. Shrijeet also shares his insights about leading teams through times of rapid growth and times that require extreme patience and perseverance.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Ty Garibay, President of Condor Computing

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, Justin Kinsey speaks with Ty Garibay, the Founder and President of Condor Computing.

Justin and Ty have an expansive talk that covers topics ranging from what initially got Ty focused on engineering, all the way to what led him to found Condor and why he is “all in” on the AI/MI/accelerated compute space. Ty also shares strategies for recruiting top talent into a startup and gives practical advice for techniques other startup leaders can use to build their organizations.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Raymond Chik, Co-Founder and Advisor to Untether AI

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, Justin Kinsey has a conversation with Raymond Chik, Co-Founder and Advisor of Untether AI.

They take a deep dive into topics ranging from Raymond’s decision to become an advisor to Untether from the early stages of building the company to his views on responsible AI and how leaders can work to ensure AI also becomes democratized. In addition, Raymond shares wisdom and guidance about building and scaling startups that other startup founders will find helpful in terms of recruiting the right people to their teams.

SBT C Suite Spotlight: Jay Dawani, CEO of Lemurian Labs

In this installment of SBT’s C-Suite Spotlight, President Justin Kinsey speaks with the Founder and CEO of Lemurian Labs, Jay Dawani. Justin and Jay cover a range of topics from Jay’s background to recent updates with Lemurian and insights about talent attraction.