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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.
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