Kenney R. Roberts, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Roberts has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, spanning both large public-traded corporations as well as venture-backed start-ups.  Mr. Roberts began his career at Mostek Corporation where he held various engineering and management positions.  In 1983, he joined AMD to lead their CMOS technology development efforts and transition that technology to high volume production.  In 1988, Mr. Roberts assumed responsibility of AMD’s embedded processor development organizations and introduced the industry’s first EEPROM-based microcontroller.  In 1993, he joined the executive team of Crystal Semiconductor and led its manufacturing efforts in becoming the world’s highest volume producer of mixed-signal products.   Four years later, Mr. Roberts assumed to role of Sr. VP of Worldwide Operations of its parent company, Cirrus Logic, and enabled it to achieve industry recognition as being the fastest growing fabless semiconductor company to achieve $1B of annualized revenue.

Since his work at Cirrus Logic, Mr. Roberts has guided several venture-backed high-tech startup companies.  Mr. Roberts was the President and COO of Colorado Microdisplay and led the company to be the leader in the near-to-the-eye display sector, he was the COO of Layer N Networks and transitioned the company to a board-level systems solutions company, and Mr. Roberts was the President and CEO of TeraVicta Technologies, establishing it as the industry leader in the high performance RF MEMS switching market.  Mr. Roberts holds a BSEE from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Dr. Jeffrey B. Casady, Chief Technology Officer &
Vice President Business Development
Dr. Casady brings nearly 20 years of hands-on semiconductor fab and device design experience in a combination of industry & academic settings such as Northrop Grumman, SemiSouth, University of Missouri, Auburn University, & Mississippi State University.  

He began his involvement with SiC power device development in 1994.  Along with colleague Dr. Michael S. Mazzola, Dr. Casady co-founded SemiSouth in July, 2000, as a spin-out of Mississippi State University.  Dr. Casady led the Company as President & CEO from 2002-2007.  During this period SemiSouth increased its revenue nearly ten-fold, constructed its uniquely designed SiC fab, established global sales of epitaxy and early stage power transistor products, and attracted over $17 M of private equity & debt investment.  SemiSouth was also able to win 17 highly competitive small business contracts from the Departments of Defense, Energy, and NASA during that period, including an extremely competitive contract for the hybrid electric vehicle development from the Department of Commerce, the first such award ever won by a Company in Mississippi.

In 2007, he transitioned to Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Business Development, as well as continuing to serve as a Board member.  In this role, Dr. Casady is actively engaged with several top tier power semiconductor manufacturers or users who are customers, prospective customers, or qualification partners, as well as managing the intellectual property portfolio for SemiSouth, which is currently 12 issued U.S. patents awarded or licensed, and seven additional patents pending.  Dr. Casady has published over 70 technical publications, three book chapters, and been an inventor or co-inventor on seven patents, all in SiC device development.  From 1999-2003, he served as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Mississippi State University while helping to found SemiSouth.  

Dr. Casady previously worked for Northrop Grumman Science and Technology Center on several key projects from 1996-99, including the development of high-frequency S-band and L-band SiC SITs for pulsed, narrow-band, high-power radar applications (both ground-based and airborn).  He worked on the design and fabrication team for many of the first SiC power switch transistors, including thyristor/MOSFET based switches in the 1990's, and received marketing and project management training while there.

He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University, and graduate and undergraduate Electrical Engineering degrees from the University of Missouri.

Robert Maddox, Chief Financial Officer
Prior to joining the Company in 2005, Mr. Maddox served as Vice President of Finance and Global Controller for Thermadyne Holdings Corporation, a $525 million multinational public manufacturing company headquartered in St. Louis, MO. During his 13 years with Thermadyne Mr. Maddox gained significant experience in merger, acquisition, and divestiture activities having worked on numerous transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $500 million. Mr. Maddox has substantial experience in a variety of financing activities including public debt offerings, senior credit facilities, and leasing arrangements. Prior to joining Thermadyne, Mr. Maddox served for seven years with the international accounting firm of Ernst & Young. While with Ernst & Young, Mr. Maddox worked with companies in a variety of industries including industrial manufacturing, oil and gas, and healthcare. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Maddox spent three years with the accounting firm of KPMG Peat Marwick. Mr. Maddox, a CPA, is a graduate of Oklahoma State University earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting.


Back to top