News: Microelectronics
28 October 2022
Transphorm appoints six company leaders
Transphorm Inc of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA — which designs and manufactures JEDEC- and AEC-Q101-qualified gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) for high-voltage power conversion — has appointed six company leaders. The roles are being filled by company veterans as well as newly hired experts. Their collective sales, operations, engineering and product marketing skillsets will contribute to business growth and customer support strategies as Transphorm responds to rapidly rising demand for high-voltage GaN power semiconductors across industries.
“The GaN power semiconductor field is an exciting one enabling significant efficiency savings with compact, cost-effective power converters and inverters. This challenges engineers and operational leaders alike to think beyond the status quo,” says president & COO Primit Parikh. “The team we have assembled to date is comprised of passionate individuals who understand our role in the power electronics industry and deeply value what Transphorm offers customers and ecosystem partners,” he adds. “We are proud to have this strong team in place to lead the next phase of growth and innovation.”
Appointments
- Philip Zuk, appointed to senior VP, business development & marketing, has spent nearly seven years supporting Transphorm in various capacities. He has been instrumental in developing relationships with marquee customers and technical partners; defining products and solutions; and establishing the company’s brand image while evangelizing its technology. That knowledge and experience led to him play a key supporting role in taking Transphorm public. He draws on nearly three decades of engineering experience anchored primarily in power semiconductors, having previously held engineering and marketing roles at Vishay (Siliconix), Microsemi PPG, Fairchild Semiconductor, and other major power technology companies.
- Sal Barlett recently joined Transphorm as senior VP, operations. For nearly three decades, he worked for onsemi ,where he most recently led the global capacity, capital planning, and strategy teams. His leadership there enabled the firm to more than double its multi-billion-dollar annual revenue. Among other achievements, he acted as operations leader for various factory acquisitions and divestitures transacted during his tenure. His responsibilities called for consistent exploration and deep analysis of operational needs followed by the development and implementation of processes and supply solutions fundamental to corporate growth.
- Likun Shen, a 15-year Transphorm veteran, has been appointed to VP of engineering. He has previously served in a device and product engineering leadership capacity as well as a senior member of technical staff. His work has contributed to the design, fabrication, characterization and qualification of Transphorm’s GaN platform and derivative products. Notably, he led an initiative responsible for improving manufacturing yields while supporting reliability improvement efforts among others. Early in his career, he earned his Ph.D. on GaN devices and held the role of assistant project scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), working directly with Transphorm’s co-founder & chief technology officer Umesh Mishra.
- Tushar Dhayagude assumes an expanded role as VP of worldwide sales, having joined in 2021 as VP of field applications & technical sales. He has become an integral member of the company’s leadership team, helping to strengthen Transphorm’s foothold in the adapter and select high-power markets while aiding solutions partnership development. He brings to this role more than 25 years’ experience in sales, marketing and engineering roles (including more than 18 years specific to power and semiconductor technologies). Prior to Transphorm, he was founder & CEO of GV Semiconductor Inc, which produced GaN-on-silicon power HEMTs, controllers and power systems.
- Vipin Bothra joins Transphorm as VP of sales, North America & Europe. With 25 years of global sales and technical experience in semiconductors, he was most recently director, sales for industrial markets at global semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics, where he led the definition and execution of go-to-market strategies for the Aerospace, Automation, Energy, Healthcare and Motion sectors. These strategies drew on a diversified set of disciplines from partnership ideation and channel programs to global market development campaigns which resulted in a multi-fold revenue growth.
- Peter Cheng joins Transphorm as VP of product marketing & applications. His experience spans managerial roles in design engineering and product marketing, most recently as senior director, Power IC Product Line at Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Inc. Overseeing five product groups, he was instrumental in defining new product requirements and application criteria along with developing viable product roadmaps. He has a multi-disciplined background — design engineering, application engineering, product engineering, marketing, and business development — in the power semiconductor industry.
