Lam Capital Venture Competition
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Ben Bajarin

Biography

Ben Bajarin is CEO and Principal Analyst at Creative Strategies, Inc., where he has worked since 2000. His research sits at the intersection of semiconductors, AI infrastructure, personal computing, consumer technology, and business strategy, with a focus on how technology transitions reshape competitive advantage, market structure, and product adoption.

Ben’s work combines industry research, primary market insight, technical analysis, and strategic advisory to help companies and investors understand where technology markets are going and what will drive durable differentiation. He has long studied the relationship between people and technology, including the behavioral, economic, and architectural forces that shape how products are built, adopted, and monetized. Before joining Creative Strategies, Ben worked at Cypress Semiconductor and founded two startups in the late 1990s.

Lucas Tsai

Biography

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, followed by a rich, all-around career in semiconductor spanning from Process R&D, Circuit Design, Marketing and Sales in a major ASIC house and top foundry. He is particularly specialized in bridging foundry and OEM because of his background in dealing with OEM business in ASIC, and his account management experience in the world #1 foundry.In his tenure as Marketing Manager with LSI, he was instrumental in bridging LSI and foundry by developing a 0.11um ASIC platform, which later became one of the most successful ASIC technologies in LSI history. While he is with TSMC, he successfully developed SUN Microsystem’s UltraSPARC CPU business in a foundry environment, from 40nm to 7nm. He also developed another multi-billion-dollar business with a consumer OEM company by converting the business from a competitor’s ASIC model to TSMC’s foundry model, and in the meanwhile, enabled foundry business model to meet OEM’s stringent supply chain requirements. Recently he duplicated his success with another major cloud service provider and developed this business into the billion dollar club as well. He is currently responsible for all sales funnels, including emerging fabless and system accounts, and also market development, in North America region. He is also responsible for the revived corporate venture in the NA region.Lucas was granted more than 20 US patents, and has published more than 40 papers in technical journals and conferences.

Chee Ping Lee

Biography

Chee Ping Lee is a Managing Director for Strategic Marketing at Lam Research, with over 22 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. His expertise spans advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, where he leads strategic and technical marketing for Lam’s wafer- and panel-level equipment solutions. He plays a key role in mapping industry roadmap, understanding technology direction to shape Lam solutions and fostering collaboration across the semiconductor ecosystem. A recognized industry voice, Chee Ping frequently shares insights at leading advanced semiconductor packaging conferences.

Chee Ping received his M.Sc in Financial Engineering and B.Eng in Chemical Engineering from National University of Singapore.

Yvonne Lutsch

Biography

Yvonne joined Lam Capital in October 2024 as Investment Director, bringing over 7 years of venture capital experience from Bosch Ventures, where she led investments in deep tech fields like AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, sensors, and industrial technology. She also has 13+ years of operational experience at Bosch, having served in leadership roles across technology scouting, business development, engineering, and electronics in both mobility as well as consumer electronics . Yvonne holds a PhD in Applied Physics from University of Tuebingen and a Diploma in Experimental Physics from University of Siegen, both Germany.

John Wesley

Biography

John Wesley is Senior Investment Director at NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm. He has a background spanning investment banking, private equity, and hedge funds, including roles at Morgan Stanley, Bain Capital, H.I.G. Capital, and Pequot Capital. Prior to NVIDIA, he held senior finance and business development roles at Omniox and served as CFO and co‑founder of Dren Bio. He holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Tim Archer

Biography

Timothy M. Archer is president and chief executive officer at Lam Research. He joined the company in 2012 following its acquisition of Novellus Systems, Inc. (“Novellus”), becoming Lam’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was later promoted to president and chief operating officer and then president and chief executive officer in December 2018.

Prior to joining Lam, Tim had an 18-year tenure at Novellus, where he served as the company’s COO and previously held a variety of technology development and leadership roles, including executive vice president of the PECVD and Electrofill Business Units; vice president of Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Customer Satisfaction; and senior director of technology for Novellus Systems Japan. He began his career at Tektronix, Inc. in 1989, developing processes for high-speed bipolar integrated circuits.

Since 2024, Tim has served as a member of the board of directors of Johnson Controls International. Tim is also on the International Board of Directors for SEMI, the global industry association representing the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain. From 2020 to 2022, he served as chairman of the board for the National Consortium for Graduate Engineering Degrees for Minorities (GEM): a nonprofit organization in the U.S. that is dedicated to increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering and science at the master’s and doctoral levels.

Tim completed the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Business and earned his B.S. degree in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology.

Audrey Charles

Biography

Audrey Charles is senior vice president of corporate strategy and advanced packaging, and president of Lam Capital at Lam Research. In this position, she is responsible for leading the executive management team in the development of strategic priorities and key initiatives that support the company’s long-term profitable growth. She is also responsible for accelerating the company’s market-leading position in advanced packaging to deliver differentiated technology and support to customers.

Additionally, Audrey oversees Lam’s Corporate Development team and investment arm, Lam Capital, which invests in disruptive companies that advance the semiconductor ecosystem through next generation industrial automation, technology and product innovation, and new market opportunities. She brings a broad base of experience to her role, including engineering, customer technology management and investor relations. Since joining Lam in 1995, she has served in a range of leadership positions including senior vice president of Global Human Resources and vice president of corporate initiatives.

Audrey earned an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in applied physics from Dublin City University.

Audrey Charles

Biography

Audrey Charles is senior vice president of corporate strategy and advanced packaging, and president of Lam Capital at Lam Research. In this position, she is responsible for leading the executive management team in the development of strategic priorities and key initiatives that support the company’s long-term profitable growth. She is also responsible for accelerating the company’s market-leading position in advanced packaging to deliver differentiated technology and support to customers.

Additionally, Audrey oversees Lam’s Corporate Development team and investment arm, Lam Capital, which invests in disruptive companies that advance the semiconductor ecosystem through next generation industrial automation, technology and product innovation, and new market opportunities. She brings a broad base of experience to her role, including engineering, customer technology management and investor relations. Since joining Lam in 1995, she has served in a range of leadership positions including senior vice president of Global Human Resources and vice president of corporate initiatives.

Audrey earned an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in applied physics from Dublin City University.

Sesha Varadarajan

Biography

Sesha Varadarajan is executive vice president and chief operating officer at Lam Research. In this role, he leads Lam’s Global Product Groups, the Customer Support Business Group (CSBG), Corporate Strategy, Global Trade and Government Affairs, and Lam India.

Sesha joined Lam in 2012 following the acquisition of Novellus. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of the Global Products Group, where he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of Lam’s product groups, worldwide lab network, and Lam India. Over his tenure at Lam, he has held multiple senior leadership roles across the company’s product and technology organizations, including senior vice president and general manager of the Deposition Business Unit. He joined Novellus in 1999, beginning as a process engineer and advancing to senior technical and business unit leadership roles, including senior vice president and general manager of the PECVD and Electrofill Business Units.

Sesha holds more than 170 global patents in semiconductor wafer processing and equipment design. He earned a master’s degree in manufacturing engineering and material science from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Mysore.

Kevin Chen

Biography

Kevin joined Lam Capital mid-2020 bringing over 15 years of entrepreneurial and operating experience in materials-centric deep- and bio-tech companies. Most recently, Kevin was CEO of Crop Enhancement, an agriculture technology company commercializing novel products that replace synthetic pesticides, leading it from Seed through Series B. Prior to that, Kevin held senior roles at Hanergy (EVP of Silicon Valley Product Development Group) and Applied Materials (CMO of Energy and Environmental Solutions and GM of Energy Storage Solutions). Prior to Applied, Kevin led business development and product management efforts at NanoGram (acquired), AMD/Spansion, and Lumentum. Kevin’s passion for entrepreneurship was ignited early in his career when he co-founded Cumulus Photonics to commercialize innovative optical networking equipment. Kevin earned PhD and SM degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT, a BS in Engineering Science from Penn State University, and is a Kauffman Fellows Finalist. He is a director of Crop Enhancement and mentor with the MIT VMS.

Srini Ananth

Biography

Srini Ananth is a Managing Director located in the Bay Area. He joined Intel Capital in 2015.

In his role, Srini invests in Deep Tech, Cloud Infrastructure, and AI Applications companies. Srini led investments in Astera Labs, Ayar Labs, BabbleLabs (acquired by Cisco), Common Sense Machines, Eliyan, Inworld AI, Iris.TV, Joby Aviation (NYSE: JOBY), OnScale, SummerBio, VeriSIM Life, and three other companies still in stealth. He was also involved in investments in Delta ID (acquired by FPC), Spectrum Labs, and Volocopter.

Srini currently serves as a director or observer on the board of Astera Labs, Ayar Labs, Common Sense Machines, Eliyan, Inworld AI, SiPhox and VeriSIM Life. Previously he served as an observer at BabbleLabs and Joby.

Srini has over a decade of operating experience spanning engineering, business development, and product management roles in IoT, mobile, and semiconductors. He holds an MBA from UCLA and MSEE from Arizona State University. He loves single-malts, skiing, and rooting for the Dallas Cowboys.

Jennifer Ard

Biography

Jennifer Ard is a Managing Director and Head of Investment Operations located for Intel Capital. She joined the fund in 2011.
In her role, Jen is responsible for managing Intel Capital’s investment-related operations and associated administrative matters. Additionally, she is primarily focused on investing in silicon-related companies and has been involved in multiple deals including Intel’s $3.2B investment in ASML.
Jen currently serves as a director or observer on the board of AMFG, Fabric8Labs, Metalenz, MemVerge, UNISERS, and Impact Nano.
Prior to Intel Capital, Jen was a Finance Controller at Intel. She graduated from Brigham Young University with her MBA and BS in Management and is a CFA Charterholder.

Peter Hong

Biography

Peter brings to Lam over 20 years of experience as a customer-centric business developer and strategist possessing a strong blend of technology and business insights. Most recently, he led Business Strategy at a Korean semiconductor equipment company since 2018. In this position, he was responsible for leading market intelligence, business collaboration, CVC investment and M&A deals to build a stronger supply eco-system. Prior to that, he was a business development manager at Kodak for 3 years where he implemented regional go-to-market strategies for the Functional Printing business. He also gained experience in the consumer electronics industry at Samsung Electro-Mechanics where over 10 years he held senior manager positions in sales, R&D, NPI, and product planning for mobile camera module, packaging substrates, LED, and touch sensor.

Peter earned an MBA from the College of Business, KAIST, and Ph.D in Physical Chemistry from POSTECH, both in the Republic of Korea.

Jim Chambers

Biography

Dr. James Chambers is Vice President of Silicon Engineering and Sourcing at NVIDIA. In this role, he leads efforts to optimize semiconductor manufacturing in collaboration with external partners, driving improvements in yield, performance/power, reliability, quality, and delivery across NVIDIA’s GPU and CPU silicon product portfolio. He is responsible for the end-to-end supply of internal and external NPI SoC samples, managing the silicon engineering interface with CPU, GPU, and memory vendors, and overseeing NVIDIA’s silicon failure analysis labs. Dr. Chambers has a proven track record of leading technology, manufacturing, product development, and product management teams to deliver some of the industry’s most innovative solutions. At AMD, he oversaw the Foundry Technology and Operations team, with responsibility for end-to-end process technology—from pathfinding through high-volume manufacturing—including AMD’s failure analysis labs. Prior to AMD, he held various roles at Texas Instruments, contributing to Silicon Technology R&D for advanced low- and high-power process nodes. He is the inventor or co-inventor of more than 50 patents and has authored 45 publications and technical presentations covering SiON, high-k dielectrics, metal gate electrodes, and advanced device architectures.

Tony Chao

Biography

As a seasoned venture capitalist and technologist with over two decades of experience, Tony brings broad international experience, agile business development acumen, strong technical analytics, and a service-oriented, entrepreneurial mindset. Prior to joining Tyche Partners, Tony was the General Manager of Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials. Tony managed a +$250M portfolio of over 60 companies. Tony is a recognized leader in the corporate venture community having been named to the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist multiple times and served as Chair of the NVCA CVG group. Tony is passionate about disruptive technologies with the capacity to make the world a better place. Tony has experience in enterprise software, mobile software, AI systems, life science, sustainability, AR/VR, advanced displays, and semiconductors. Some of Tony’s past investments include SunEdison (acquired by MEMC), Infinite Power Solutions, Inc. (acquired), Grandis (acquired by Samsung), Liquavista (acquired by Samsung), Adesto Technologies (IPO), Twist Bioscience (IPO), Enki Technology (acquired by First Solar), Persimmon Technologies (acquired by Sumitomo Heavy Industries), Point Engineering (IPO), Tsukuba Seiko (IPO), Nexplanar (acquired by Cabot Microelectronics), IMS Nanofabrication (acquired by Intel), PlayNitride (IPO) and Vence (acquired by Merck). Currently Tony is serving as board member/observer at Ayar Labs, LightForce Orthodontics, Guru Wireless, Crossbar, Elastix.ai and VEIR. Before becoming a venture investor, Tony served in technology leadership roles at several startups in the Boston area, including Director of Engineering at Cymfony (acquired by TNS Media Intelligence) and Lobby7 (acquired by ScanSoft/Nuance). Tony holds Bachelor of Science and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Management Science. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Heejin Chung

Biography

Heejin Chung has established and has been leading a venture investment operation for SK hynix since 2015. His investment focus areas include, but not limited to, emerging memory technologies and semiconductor in general, datacenter & cloud, artificial intelligence, automotive, and any disruptive technologies and business models that will have significant impacts on memory (i.e. DRAM, NAND/SSD, CMOS image sensors) business in 5 years and beyond. His current board responsibilities include Stratio as a board member, Elastics.cloud, FMC, TetraMem, MemVerge, TidalScale, GigaIO and Femtometrix as a board observer. He holds a BA from Seoul National University with a major in business and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Shahin Farshchi

Biography

Inspired by Knight Rider and Star Trek, Shahin grew up with a passion to endow superpowers to humanity through feats of engineering. He learned BASIC on an IBM PC XT clone he built at his aunt’s computer store and dialed into Bulletin Board Systems in the 4th grade. A few years later, he was fixing an Alfa Romeo at his uncle’s repair shop. He aspired to design microchips, software, and integrated systems that could one day rival K.I.T.T. or even power warp drives to carry humanity to the far corners of the galaxy. He is a generalist at Lux, which has $7 billion under management, and has been first investors in category-defining companies across AI, automation, biotech, compute, defense, energy, infrastructure, robotics, and beyond — including Anduril, Applied Intuition, Auris, Chronosphere, Cognition, Eikon, Hugging Face, Impulse Space, Physical Intelligence, Runway, Sakana, and Together. Lux has created and co-founded more than 20 de novo companies through Lux Labs, and multiple Lux investments have become lasting publicly traded companies and major divisions acquired by Amazon, Cisco, Databricks, J&J, Meta, Palo Alto Networks, and more. For more than two decades, Shahin has partnered with founders building frontier technologies, guided by deep respect for the entrepreneur and the company-building journey. After working at several software startups, he founded his first company in 2004 based on his PhD research designing chips, systems, and software to capture and interpret brain signals. In 2006, he joined Lux at the invitation of its founding team and has since cofounded and led investments in companies spanning AI, semiconductors, autonomy, and aerospace — from early conviction to enduring scale. These include companies that have become publicly traded (NYSE: AEVA; NYSE: PL) and those acquired by Intel (Nervana), Amazon (Zoox), Silicon Labs (Silicon Clocks), and Lattice Semiconductor (SiBeam). An engineer at heart, Shahin works alongside founders as a long-term partner, connecting them with the resources, talent, and relationships towards building generational companies. Shahin has two young daughters and enjoys flying small aircraft.

Siddharth Gupta

Biography

Siddharth is a Managing Director at Samsung Ventures, focusing on investments in AI, Robotics and Semiconductors. Siddharth’s recent investments include companies like Encharge, Figure, Skild and Gimlet labs. Siddharth has a decade long experience in technical roles at companies like Apple, Nvidia and Maxim Integrated. Prior to Samsung, Siddharth worked as a hardware system architect at Apple, where his team was responsible for early-stage technology investigations for enhancing the Apple consumer product lines. Siddharth holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B-Tech in Electronics Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology.

Tony Kim

Biography

Tony Kim, Managing Director, is Head of the Global Technology Team within the Fundamental Equities division of BlackRock’s Portfolio Management Group. He is lead portfolio manager of the BlackRock Technology Opportunities Fund and related global strategies. Mr. Kim joined BlackRock in 2013. His 30 years of experience in technology investments also includes key roles at Artisan Partners, Credit Suisse Asset Management, Neuberger Berman, Merrill Lynch and SG Warburg. Mr. Kim is a member of the Advisory Board for Columbia Business School’s Digital Future Initiative, which brings together Columbia faculty members and leaders from across industries to help organizations, governments and communities optimize and accelerate the technological advances of the future. Mr. Kim earned a BS degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Columbia University.

Gayathri Radhakrishnan

Biography

Gayathri (G) Radhakrishnan has over two decades of multi-disciplinary experience across product management, product marketing, corporate strategy, M&A, and venture investments at both Fortune 500 companies (Corning, Dell, Micron) and early-stage startups in the technology sector. Currently, a Partner at Hitachi Ventures, she focuses on technology startups driving digital transformation. Previously, she was with Micron Ventures, actively investing in startups applying AI in the areas of Manufacturing, Healthcare, Mobility, and also data center and storage related technologies. She also worked as an earlystage investor at Earlybird Venture Capital, a premier European venture capital fund based in Germany. Gayathri holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University and an MBA from INSEAD in France. She is also a Kauffman Fellow.

Manish Muthal

Biography

Prior to joining Maverick in 2024, Mr. Muthal was a Senior Vice President for Hyperscaler engagements at KIOXIA. Before this experience, he served in executive roles at semiconductor companies such as Intel, Xilinx, Broadcom and LSI. Mr. Muthal has built and led organizations that delivered record revenue growth, has co-founded multiple venture backed start-ups, and has been a corporate investor, sponsor and board advisor at multiple successful companies at their earliest stages. He serves as a board member of Axiado, Baya Systems, MemWize and GSME. Mr. Muthal received his B.S. from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology Nagpur, India and his M.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of California Santa Barbara.

Akshay Singh

Biography

Dr. Akshay Singh is Corporate Vice President of Advanced Packaging Technology Development at Micron Technology. He leads a global team that is responsible for delivering advanced memory packaging solutions for HBM, high performance compute and AI/ML applications. Dr. Singh joined Micron in 2006 as an interposer materials engineer and since then has held number of positions of increasing responsibility in packaging design, integration and technology development. Prior to joining Micron, Dr. Singh held product development positions at Artificial Muscle, Inc. and USDA. Dr. Singh has authored several keynote publications and patents and has served as an invited panel speaker at several conferences. Dr. Singh holds master’s and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from Louisiana State University, bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Maharaja Sayajirao University and is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program. Education: Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program, Stanford University; PhD and MS, Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University; BE, Mechanical Engineering, Maharaja Sayajirao University.

Michael Stewart

Biography

Michael is a Managing Partner at M12 – Microsoft’s Venture Fund, where he leads thesis areas in Generative AI, Gaming, and Systems. His interests include infrastructure and applications for efficient AI scaling and production, interactive and intelligent video gaming experiences, and energy, semiconductor, and photonics technology for future hyperscale compute systems. He has led 20 investments for M12 and serves on the boards of portfolio companies such as d-Matrix, InWorld, PsiQuantum, Armada, Volley, Fastino, Arcee, Syntiant, Lace Lithography, Cloudforce, and nEYE Systems. Michael began his investing career at Applied Ventures, where his investment areas included AI/ML hardware and software, silicon photonics, high precision robotics, and printed electronics. He led investments in twelve AV portfolio companies, including M12 portfolio company Syntiant, and exits include Persimmon Robotics (sold to Sumitomo), Digital Specialty Chemicals (sold to Entegris), Inpria (sold to JSR), and Rockley Photonics (NYSE:RKLY). Prior to joining Applied Ventures, Michael spent 15 years in advanced technology development in the semiconductor industry at Applied Materials and Intel Research, after postdoctoral work in a DARPA program for post-CMOS devices. Michael was co-founder of consumer electronics focused startup JUSE, and inventor of the low-cost CRAFT Cell for silicon photovoltaics. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business and is an inventor and author of more than 40 patents and 30 peer reviewed publications from his research and technical career (h-index: 31).

Raja Swaminathan

Biography

Dr. Raja Swaminathan is the Corporate Vice President of Heterogeneous Integration Technologies at AMD, spearheading the development of AMD’s advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration roadmap. He also leads the Optics technology development at AMD, driving innovation in high-speed optical interconnects and photonics integration. With a distinguished career spanning roles at Intel, Apple, and now AMD, Dr. Swaminathan’s expertise in design-technology co-optimization and dedication to optimizing power, performance, area, and cost (PPAC) have led to significant technological advancements such as EMIB, Apple’s Mx packages, 3D V-Cache, and 3.5D architectures for AI accelerators. Dr. Swaminathan holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and an undergraduate degree from IIT Madras. With over 100 patents and more than 40 published papers to his name, he was recently recognized as an IEEE Fellow and serves as a technical advisor to multiple startups. His unwavering commitment to heterogeneous integration continues to drive the boundaries of silicon technology. He also shares his insights on life and leadership, drawing lessons from the semiconductor industry, on his LinkedIn profile.

Lucas Tsai

Biography

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, followed by a rich, all-around career in semiconductor spanning from Process R&D, Circuit Design, Marketing and Sales in a major ASIC house and top foundry. He is particularly specialized in bridging foundry and OEM because of his background in dealing with OEM business in ASIC, and his account management experience in the world #1 foundry.

In his tenure as Marketing Manager with LSI, he was instrumental in bridging LSI and foundry by developing a 0.11um ASIC platform, which later became one of the most successful ASIC technologies in LSI history. While he is with TSMC, he successfully developed SUN Microsystem’s UltraSPARC CPU business in a foundry environment, from 40nm to 7nm. He also developed another multi-billion-dollar business with a consumer OEM company by converting the business from a competitor’s ASIC model to TSMC’s foundry model, and in the meanwhile, enabled foundry business model to meet OEM’s stringent supply chain requirements. Recently he duplicated his success with another major cloud service provider and developed this business into the billion dollar club as well. He is currently responsible for all sales funnels, including emerging fabless and system accounts, and also market development, in North America region. He is also responsible for the revived corporate venture in the NA region.

Lucas was granted more than 20 US patents, and has published more than 40 papers in technical journals and conferences.

Jennifer Ard​

Biography

Jennifer Ard is a Managing Director and Head of Investment Operations located for Intel Capital. She joined the fund in 2011. ​

​In her role, Jen is responsible for managing Intel Capital’s investment-related operations and associated administrative matters. Additionally, she is primarily focused on investing in silicon-related companies and has been involved in multiple deals including Intel’s $3.2B investment in ASML. ​

​Jen currently serves as a director or observer on the board of AMFG, Fabric8Labs, Metalenz, MemVerge, UNISERS, and Impact Nano.​

Prior to Intel Capital, Jen was a Finance Controller at Intel. She graduated from Brigham Young University with her MBA and BS in Management and is a CFA Charterholder.​

Kevin Chen

Biography

Kevin joined Lam Capital mid-2020 bringing over 15 years of entrepreneurial and operating experience in materials-centric deep- and bio-tech companies. Most recently, Kevin was CEO of Crop Enhancement, an agriculture technology company commercializing novel products that replace synthetic pesticides, leading it from Seed through Series B. Prior to that, Kevin held senior roles at Hanergy (EVP of Silicon Valley Product Development Group) and Applied Materials (CMO of Energy and Environmental Solutions and GM of Energy Storage Solutions). Prior to Applied, Kevin led business development and product management efforts at NanoGram (acquired), AMD/Spansion, and Lumentum. Kevin’s passion for entrepreneurship was ignited early in his career when he co-founded Cumulus Photonics to commercialize innovative optical networking equipment. Kevin earned PhD and SM degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT, a BS in Engineering Science from Penn State University, and is a Kauffman Fellows Finalist. He is a director of Crop Enhancement and mentor with the MIT VMS.

Audrey Charles

Biography

Audrey Charles is senior vice president of corporate strategy at Lam Research. In this position, held since 2020, she is responsible for leading the executive management team in the development of strategic priorities and key initiatives that support the company’s long-term profitable growth. Audrey also oversees Lam’s Corporate Development team and the company’s investment arm, Lam Capital, which invests in disruptive companies that advance the semiconductor ecosystem through next generation industrial automation, technology and product innovation, and new market opportunities. She brings a broad base of experience to her role, including engineering, marketing, customer management and investor relations. Since joining Lam in 1995, she has served in a range of leadership positions including senior vice president of Global Human Resources, vice president of corporate initiatives and chief of staff to the CEO. Audrey earned an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a B.S. in applied physics from Dublin City University.

Weili Dai

Biography

Weili Dai is one of the most successful women entrepreneurs in the world. Widely considered a technology visionary, she is the only woman Co-Founder of a global semiconductor company, Marvell Technology Group. ​

For her contributions to technology and society, Newsweek named Ms. Dai one of the “150 Women Who Shake the World”. Forbes Magazine listed Ms. Dai as one of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” and “America’s Richest Self-Made Women”. The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) also recognized Ms. Dai with the prestigious 2013 Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award.​

Weili Dai holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Today, “Sutardja Dai Hall” named after Ms. Dai along with her husband, Sehat Sutardja, is home to the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).​

Ms. Dai is the Chairwoman of Lark Health through which she has become a powerful advocate for the better use of technology to improve the human condition. She’s now an extremely proud grandmother and continues to have a relentless passion to innovate through her various active roles in semiconductor technology and software companies –including Silicon Box, as Co-Founder, FLC Technology Group as the Co-Founder and President, and MeetKai, as Co-Founder and Executive Chairwoman, where she’s shaping the future of AI experiences.​

Rene Do​

Biography

Rene Do is a deep tech investment and business development professional, with 20+ years’ track record in semiconductors, consumer electronics, and automotive industries. She is passionate about innovation and building partnerships based on mutual value. She is currently Senior Director at SK Hynix, driving venture investments in emerging memory technology, fabrication process, AI, data infrastructure, IoT, and mobility areas. ​

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Prior to joining SK, Rene headed up technology partnerships at LG, where she boosted partnership success rate six-fold, enabling innovations in their mobile, home entertainment, and home appliance businesses. At Accenture, she orchestrated digital transformation and cloud strategies for Fortune 500 telco, electronics, and automotive clients. Rene delivered several top selling mobile devices in Asian markets during her time at Motorola, and was responsible for Samsung’s entry into portable and automotive display semiconductor business. ​

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Rene holds an MBA from INSEAD, as well as a BS degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Seoul National University.​

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Glenn Ge

Biography

Dr. Glenn Ge is the CEO and co-founder of TetraMem Inc., a prominent Silicon Valley startup specializing in AI accelerators. ​

He has two decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, contributing to many innovations and product developments. Dr. Ge has co-authored over 20 research papers in prestigious journals such as Nature and Science and has approximately 800 global patent filings across more than 300 US/PCT patent families. Many of his inventions are now in mass production. ​

He holds three Master’s degrees, including an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and a Ph.D. in Microelectronics from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.​

David (Dede) Goldschmidt

Biography

David (Dede) Goldschmidt is Managing Director and Head of Samsung Catalyst Fund, a multi-stage venture capital fund investing in deep-tech infrastructure and data-enabled platforms. ​

Previously, David was Founder and General Partner of Valley Venture Capital, and Managing Partner and CEO at Mofet Technology Fund. ​

Earlier in his career, David held executive and operational positions at ADC Broadband Multiservice Access Division (Nasdaq: ADCT) and at Teledata Communications (Nasdaq: TLDCF, acquired by ADC). ​

David holds an M.S. in Solid State Physics and a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Tel Aviv University.​

Ben Haskell

Biography

Ben is a Business Development Director at Lam Research and Investment Director at Lam Capital since 2023. Prior to joining Lam Capital, he developed and led Lam’s Technology Scouting program that identified, evaluated, and co-developed disruptive technologies in partnership with startups and established businesses alike. Before joining Lam, Ben was an entrepreneur and executive. He was co-founder and CEO of III-V CVD startup Inlustra Technologies, leading the company through its series B fundraising. He then joined micro-LED display startup Ostendo Technologies, where as Vice President of Technology he led nonpolar III-V epitaxy development and the company’s heterogeneous integration fab for monolithic displays. He has over 30 pending and issued patents and authored over 50 papers and book chapters with more than 3,500 citations. Ben earned his B.S.E in Materials Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and his Ph.D. in Materials from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Sharad Mehrotra

Biography

Sharad Mehrotra leads Technology Innovation Portfolio and Strategy within Microsoft’s Azure Hardware Systems and Architecture group. His team is responsible for driving research, strategy, and incubation of hardware-related innovation across the Microsoft Cloud through end-to-end technology development, startup and venture capital ecosystem engagement, and management of Azure’s hardware innovation portfolio.

Sharad is an experienced technology executive and entrepreneur who has alternated between leadership roles at both large companies and startups over multiple decades. Before joining Microsoft in April 2022, Sharad served as Chief Product Officer at Platina Systems Corporation, a start-up focused on the edge and private clouds. Prior to that, he was the Founder and CEO of Saratoga Speed, Inc., an all-flash storage start-up he incubated within Sanmina Corporation in 2012. Before forming Saratoga Speed, Inc., Sharad served as VP in the Office of Strategy and Technology for Hewlett Packard, where he provided 360 leadership for HP’s multi-billion-dollar strategic relationships with AMD and ARM Holdings, Inc. And before HP, Sharad was the principal founder and CEO of two “big idea” start-ups: Procket Networks, Inc., which competed with Cisco and Juniper in Internet core routers (1999); and Fabric7 Systems, Inc., which competed with IBM, HP, Sun, and Dell in converged network and computing infrastructure (2002). Earlier in his career, Sharad was a processor architect with Sun Microsystems and an ASIC designer with Silicon Systems, Inc.

Sharad’s four degrees include a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and prior degrees in Electrical Engineering. He also has 30+ patents granted for his technical work over the years.

Bardia Pezeshki

Biography

Bardia Pezeshki has a PhD in EE from Stanford – worked on photonic devices at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, and SDL.

He is the founder and CEO of two prior startups, Santur and Kaiam, the first of which developed the market leading tunable laser for long distance fiber optics in mid 2000’s and the second of which developed and manufactured leading 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s transceivers for datacenters.

He is the CEO of Avicena Tech, which developes a novel microLED data interconnect solution that enables optics with unprecedented performance for shorter distance communications.

Amir Salek

Biography

​Dr. Salek is a Senior Managing Director at Cerberus Capital Management, a global leader in alternative investing with $60+ billion in assets under management. He leads the firm’s investments in the broad ecosystem of technologies that enables the computer industry and sits on the boards of Avicena Technology, Eliyan Inc., and Untether AI.

​Before joining Cerberus in 2022, Dr. Salek was the founder and head of Silicon for Google Technical Infrastructure and Cloud (GCP) businesses for nearly 9 years. He started and led multiple lines of ground-breaking products that today are part of the de facto infrastructure behind all Google services. His work included building Google’s world-class AI infrastructure including the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) family of products which enabled the democratization of AI in a wide range of applications. Over the past three decades, Dr. Salek has led the development of products in a wide range of domains such as machine learning, networking, graphics, video, mobile processors, and EDA. Prior to his tenure at Google, Dr. Salek was a Senior Director of Engineering at Nvidia, where he was the Founder and head of Nvidia’s System-on-a-Chip Design organization.

​Dr. Salek holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Southern California.

Vera Schroeder

Biography

Vera Schroeder is a Partner and Investment Committee Member at Safar Partners. Vera brings broad experience in the fields of chemistry, nanoscience and materials science to the Safar team.

As a graduate student, she worked in the laboratory of Professor Tim Swager at MIT focused on carbon-nanotube based chemical sensing. While at MIT, she also spent her time at Sloan and HBX learning about venture creation and strategy as well as interning at MP Healthcare Venture Management fund.

She holds a BS and MS in Chemistry from RWTH Aachen University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT. She also acts as a Global Talent Fellow at the Open Avenues Foundation where she develops and leads technology transfer products, helping students gain skills that are valued in spinning out technology companies from universities.

Vera serves as a Board Director on the Boards of Concerto Biosciences, Ancilia Biosciences, and 2Pi Optics.

Sid Sheth

Biography

Sid Sheth co-founded d-Matrix in 2019 with a vision to build a new class of compute platform to deploy AI inference efficiently at-scale. In his role as CEO, Sid is leading a global team in developing a first-of-a-kind Generative AI inference solution using in-memory compute chiplet-based architectures, that promises to change the trajectory of commercially viable generative AI.

Sid has spent more than two decades as a business and technical leader transforming startups into industry leaders and steering publicly traded corporations toward groundbreaking innovations. Prior to d-Matrix, as Sr. Vice President & GM for the Networking Business Unit at Inphi Corporation, he incubated and grew the group into a $1B+ business by focusing on the cloud and enterprise data center segment. Prior to Inphi, Sid was at NetLogic Microsystems (now Broadcom) and Intel where he ran marketing and worked in R&D for cutting-edge networking chips and processors.

Sid earned his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, where he serves on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board. He is a regularly featured speaker at industry tradeshows and conferences, is a published author at ISSCC and holds several patents.

Vahid Vahedi

Biography

Vahid Vahedi is senior vice president and chief technology officer at Lam Research. In this role, he is responsible for driving innovation breakthroughs that define the next generation of semiconductors and result in the expansion of the company’s portfolio of best-in-class products and solutions.

Vahid has nearly 30 years of experience in technology and business leadership. Joining Lam in 1995, he was previously the senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Etch Business Unit, where he was responsible for the launch of Sense.i^®, Lam’s most innovative etch platform to date. Prior to that, he held a range of leadership positions at the company, supporting product management and marketing for the Etch Business Unit, as well as overseeing development of Lam’s dielectric etch, conductor and 3DIC etch innovations.

Vahid earned his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.