Portable Design Conference & Exhibition - 2008

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About the Speakers

Keynote Speaker: James Cathey, Vice President of Business Development, QUALCOMM MEMS Technologies
As vice president of business development for Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Mr. Cathey cultivates new revenue opportunities, as well as oversees applications engineering, technical product marketing, product management and marketing communications. A 17-year technology industry veteran, Cathey has extensive experience in the creation, implementation and management of domestic and international market strategies for advanced display technologies, semiconductors and software. His experience spans multiple display technologies including field emission display (FED), liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS), organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and liquid crystal display (LCD). Prior to joining QMT, Cathey served as a senior executive at display companies including, Micron Technology and PixTech. He has also provided strategic business consulting services to companies such as DuPont Display, DuPont PhotoMask and Applied Materials. He earned a bachelor's of business administration in marketing from Boise State University. He also holds four patents and is a member of the Society for Information Display (SID).

Keynote Speaker: Rodd Novak, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, Peregrine Semiconductor
Rodd Novak is responsible for the design and execution of Peregrine's global product marketing strategy and directs the company's strategic business development activities. Since joining Peregrine in 2002, Mr. Novak has contributed to the Company's focus on the RF wireless and broadband markets.
Prior to joining Peregrine Semiconductor, he served as corporate marketing manager for CTS Corporation and as an electrical engineer at Westinghouse Corporation, and later moved to a marketing role with the commercial business unit of its subsidiary, Xetron Corporation. Mr. Novak holds a BSEE degree from the University of Cincinnati and MBA from Xavier University.

Rich Kapusta, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Actel
Mr. Kapusta joined Actel in 2008, bringing with him more than 15 years of engineering, marketing and management experience. Prior to joining Actel, he was vice president, business development for Exar Semiconductor and product line vice president and general manager at Sipex Semiconductor. Previously, Kapusta held strategic marketing, engineering and management positions at Cypress Semiconductor. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

James Bruce, North American Mobile Solutions Manager, ARM
James Bruce resides in Sunnyvale, CA, where he is a part of the team driving ARM's presence among handset manufacturers and software partners in the mobile market. As ARM's manager for mobile products in North America, Bruce works with handset manufacturers such as Motorola on innovating technology for future handsets. Most recently, Bruce spearheaded ARM's partnership with Adobe and the company's membership in the Open Screen Project, which is dedicated to enhancing the Internet experience across televisions, mobile and consumer electronics devices. Bruce is also responsible for ARM's relationship with Google and ensuring ARM's involvement in standards development.

Srinivas Pattamatta, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Atheros
Srinivas Pattamatta is currently a senior product marketing manager for Atheros' Wireless Networking and Computing Business Unit. He joined the company in May 2006 as a senior product marketing manager for the Mobile and Embedded Products Group. Prior to joining Atheros, he was product marketing manager at Philips for seven years in the company's wireless and wired connectivity products division. Earlier, Pattamatta was a design manager for the Computing and Networking group at VLSI Technology (acquired by Philips). He has held various senior engineering level positions at companies like Sony and Level One Communications. Pattamatta holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Oregon State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Santa Clara University.

Markus Levy, President, EEMBC
Markus Levy is founder and president of EEMBC. He is also president of The Multicore Association and chairman of Multicore Expo. Mr. Levy was previously a senior analyst at In-Stat/MDR and an editor at EDN magazine, focusing in both roles on processors for the embedded industry. Levy began his career in the semiconductor industry at Intel Corporation, where he served as both a senior applications engineer and customer training specialist for Intel's microprocessor and flash memory products. He is the co-author of Designing with Flash Memory, the one and only technical book on this subject, and received several patents while at Intel for his ideas related to flash memory architecture and usage as a disk drive alternative. He is also a volunteer firefighter.

John Carbone, Vice President – Marketing, Express Logic
John Carbone is vice president of marketing for Express Logic, Inc., in San Diego, California. Mr. Carbone has over 30 years experience in real-time embedded computer systems and software, as an embedded systems developer and FAE, and more recently as a sales and marketing executive. Mr. Carbone's experience includes embedded computers, array processors, attached processors, development tools, and both commercial and proprietary real-time operating systems. Mr. Carbone has a BA degree in mathematics from Boston College.

Stephen Olsen, Product Marketing Manager, Embedded Systems Division, Mentor Graphics
Stephen Olsen has over 20 years of embedded software experience, and is currently product marketing manager in Embedded Systems Division at Mentor Graphics. His previous roles included consulting, system architecture, embedded software and IP. Stephen has co-chaired the VSIA's Hardware dependent Software (HdS) design working group and has published several papers on system design. Stephen holds a BS in Physics from Humboldt State University in California.

Per Viklund, Director of IC Packaging & RF, Systems Design Division, Mentor Graphics
Per Vikund is a long time IEEE & IMAPS member with more than 25 years of experience in electronic design, with the last 20+ years focused on the design of advanced EDA tools. Viklund is a recognized industry expert in advanced packaging and RF design; he has published and presented numerous papers on IC packaging, embedded passives, RF and high-speed design. Prior to joining Mentor, Viklund was chief technical manager of DDE-EDA for ten years.

Steve Caldwell, Director, RF Products Division, Microchip
As Director of Microchip Technology's Radio Frequency (RF) Products Division, Steve Caldwell defines, manages and drives Microchip's RF business strategy. Steve started his career with Microchip in IC design and test, and has since held positions as Corporate Quality Director, as well as Director of Operations of a Microchip manufacturing facility. Steve has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and a MBA degree in International Business from the University of Dallas.

Ravi Ambatipudi, Product Line Director, Advanced Power Mgmt, National Semiconductor
Ravi Ambatipudi, Product Line Director of Advanced Power Management solutions at National Semiconductor, is responsible for developing PowerWise system-level energy conservation technologies and products. In his position, he also directs strategy, marketing and business development for energy conservation technologies and is responsible for forming key alliances and key customer relations. Ravi holds five patents on power and energy management technologies and has authored more than 30 conference papers and magazine articles. Ravi earned a Masters of Science Degree from Virginia Tech in Electrical Engineering with emphasis on Power management. He has been with National Semiconductor since 1995.

Wes Reid, Marketing Director, Digital & Consumer Products Group, ON Semiconductor
Wes Reid is the Director of Strategic Marketing for ON Semiconductor's Digital and Consumer Group. He leads a team of strategic marketing managers and systems engineers responsible for defining customers' future component solution needs, and driving both market penetration and revenue growth plans for the division. His career encompasses eighteen years of industry experience in both hardware and software design, applications engineering, and all aspects of product marketing. Prior to joining ON Semiconductor in 2005, Mr. Reid held positions with companies including Honeywell, Microchip, Atmel, and Lucent (Agere Systems). He holds both a BSEE and MBA in International Marketing and Finance from Arizona State University.

Rodd Novak, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, Peregrine Semiconductor
Rodd Novak is responsible for the design and execution of Peregrine's global product marketing strategy and directs the company's strategic business development activities. Since joining Peregrine in 2002, Mr. Novak has contributed to the Company's focus on the RF wireless and broadband markets. Prior to joining Peregrine Semiconductor, he served as corporate marketing manager for CTS Corporation and as an electrical engineer at Westinghouse Corporation, and later moved to a marketing role with the commercial business unit of its subsidiary, Xetron Corporation. Mr. Novak holds a BSEE degree from the University of Cincinnati and MBA from Xavier University.

John Donovan, Editor-in-Chief, Portable Design magazine
John Donovan, Editor-in-Chief has 25 years of industry-related experience that spans technical journalism, writing, editing, and marketing communications in both North America and Asia. He has written and edited for a variety of publications in the electronics field and was one of the original editors on the staff of EDN Asia. His marketing communications experience includes director-level roles at such Silicon Valley firms as Cypress Semiconductor and MIPS Technologies. Donovan also is a member of IEEE and ACM.

James Cathey, Vice President of Business Development, QUALCOMM MEMS Technologies
As vice president of business development for Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Mr. Cathey cultivates new revenue opportunities, as well as oversees applications engineering, technical product marketing, product management and marketing communications. A 17-year technology industry veteran, Cathey has extensive experience in the creation, implementation and management of domestic and international market strategies for advanced display technologies, semiconductors and software. His experience spans multiple display technologies including field emission display (FED), liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS), organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and liquid crystal display (LCD). Prior to joining QMT, Cathey served as a senior executive at display companies including Micron Technology, MicroDisplay and PixTech. He has also provided strategic business consulting services to companies such as DuPont Display, DuPont PhotoMask and Applied Materials. He earned a bachelor's of business administration in marketing from Boise State University. He also holds four patents and is a member of the Society for Information Display (SID).

Reza Kasnavi, Vice President of Product Management, Sequoia Communications
Dr. Reza Kasnavi brings to Sequoia Communications over 11 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Dr. Kasnavi joined Sequoia Communications in 2005 as the Director of Product Development. Before joining Sequoia Communications, Dr Kasnavi was Venture Partner at Tallwood Venture Capital where he made contributions to several start-ups, which led to significant production volume of multiple products including the industry's only CMOS power amplifier for GSM handsets and InP-based IC's for OC-192/768 optical networking. Before his position at Tallwood Venture Capital, Dr. Kasnavi held positions at HP, IBM Microelectronics and Stanford University/Intel Research, where he performed research on bulk and SOI CMOS technology scaling to sub-45 nm nodes. Additionally, he pioneered research at the Stanford Genome Center in the application of bio-MEMS in DNA sequencing. Dr. Kasnavi holds a Ph. D. and a M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. degree in electronics from Sharif University of Technology.

Andrew Hsu, Manager of Technical Marketing and Strategic Partnership, Synaptics
Dr. Andrew Hsu has been the primary technical contact for Synaptics’ worldwide customers in the handheld space since 1999. He joined Synaptics in 1996 and led the company’s efforts into establishing a presence in the mobile handset market. Hsu developed Synaptics’ ClearPad technology, a transparent sensor that can be mounted under curved plastic and glass. He led the marketing for ClearPad, resulting in the first production phone with a capacitive touch screen, the LG Prada. Prior to his current role, Hsu was a scientist and a design engineer that helped develop the first single-chip TouchPad solution for Synaptics. Hsu holds a doctorate in neuroscience and a master’s in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Caltech.

Steve Leibson, Technology Evangelist, Tensilica
Steven Leibson is the Technology Evangelist for Tensilica, Inc. He formerly served as Editor in Chief of the Microprocessor Report, EDN magazine, and Embedded Developers Journal. He holds a BSEE from Case Western Reserve University and worked as a design engineer and engineering manager for leading-edge system-design companies including Hewlett-Packard and Cadnetix before becoming a journalist. Mr. Leibson is an IEEE Senior Member.

Jonah Probell, Multimedia Systems Engineer, Tensilica
Jonah Probell works for Tensilica as Multimedia Systems Engineer. He is a friendly expert in digital video system architecture and chip design for consumer electronics. Jonah began his career as a RISC-DSP processor core designer at Lexra. Later he co-founded Ultra Data where he was an architect and the principle implementer of the world’s first programmable video DSP core capable of multi-standard full HD video decode. Jonah has also worked, briefly, at Teradyne, Micronas, Omnilala, ARC International, and briefly as a consultant for developers of chips, IP cores, codecs, and end user digital video products. He has published many articles and presented technical papers on video, processors, and DSP design.

Larry Przywara, Director, Mobile Multimedia, Tensilica
Larry Przywara manages Tensilica's audio and video solutions for portable multimedia devices. Previously, Przywara was the Director of Strategic Alliances and managed all of Tensilica's third-party partnerships, including IC foundries, development-tool suppliers, software developers, EDA tool suppliers and IC-design service providers. Prior to joining Tensilica, he handled MIPS and USB CoreWare products as a marketing manager at LSI Logic. Przywara has also served in various marketing and product engineering roles at AMCC and AMD. He received a BSEE from Lehigh University in 1984.

Raghavan Menon, Senior Director, DDR Memory Controller Group, Virage Logic
Raghavan Menon has more than 14 years of experience leading development teams and a proven track record in delivering complex multi-chip solutions with first silicon success. He is currently a Senior Director at Virage Logic. Raghavan’s expertise lies in leading large teams to architect, implement, and successfully deliver next generation ASICs. He held the position of Vice President of Engineering and CTO at Covalent Semiconductor Inc. a startup focusing on datapath and switch fabric solutions for the enterprise networking and storage market. Prior to that he was Principal Architect at Vivace Networks, a startup acquired by Tellabs, focusing on equipment for the future broadband public data network where he was responsible for the switch fabric and traffic management ASICs. Raghavan holds an MSEE Honors from the University of Kansas.

Joel Rosenberg, Senior Director, Non-Volatile Memory & Military Business, Virage Logic
Joel Rosenberg serves as Senior Marketing Director for Virage Logic’s Non-Volatile Memory and Military business. As a 27-year industry veteran in the semiconductor business, Mr. Rosenberg has held senior engineering, marketing, business development and product line management positions at Fairchild, MMI, Signetics, WSI, Concurrent Logic, Atmel, and Virage Logic. Mr. Rosenberg has published several papers in the areas of Cache Logic FPGAs and Design Security. His experience includes Semiconductor Memory, Programmable Logic, System-on-Chip (SoC), ASIC and Intellectual Property. Joel holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Santa Barbara, an MBA from the University of Santa Clara and a California Real Estate License.

Nikhil Chauhan, Senior Product Manager, Wind River
Nikhil Chauhan, Senior Product Manager for Wind River, steers product strategy that leads to world class wireless networking, security and network management technologies for VxWorks and Wind River Linux based platforms. Nikhil leverages his proven cross-continental experience in Americas, EMEA and APAC regions serving highly competitive industry verticals including networking, digital living, industrial and aerospace/defense. Prior to joining Wind River, Nikhil grew while working for WLAN product line at NXP Semiconductors and IP networking unit at Ericsson USA. A committed leader with over 11 years of business success, he has strong concentration in product management, marketing, strategic planning, business development, program management and engineering. A graduate of Henley Business School at the University of Reading, Nikhil holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelors of Engineering.

Mark Guinther, Senior Product Manager, Wind River
Mark Guinther is a Senior Product Manager for Networking at Wind River. He has over twenty years of experience in the data/ voice/wireless networking industry including management positions at Alcatel and FORE Systems. He has a background in a broad range of technologies including IP routing, xDSL, network security, ATM, IPv6, VoIP, wireless, and next generation networks. Mark has a bachelor's degree in computer science from UC Berkeley and an MBA.

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