Ray BinghamChairman of the Board
Ray Bingham has more than 30 years of business expertise in mergers, acquisitions, global trade and venture capital. He currently is General Atlantic’s managing director, as well as co-head of the firm’s Palo Alto office and of the firm’s investment activities in the Communications and Electronics sector. Prior to joining General Atlantic, Mr. Bingham served in executive management roles at Cadence Design Systems, including executive chairman, president and CEO and CFO.
Mr. Bingham is a director of four additional public companies: Oracle Corporation, Flextronics International Ltd. and STMicroelectronics NV and Dice Holdings Inc.
Mr. Bingham received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Weber State University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.
Keith Barnes
Keith Barnes has over 35 years of experience in semiconductor, manufacturing and test companies. He has held chairman and chief executive officer positions for three public companies over 15 years, served on five public company boards, has extensive capital markets experience, and manufacturing expertise in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe and the United States.
His most recent position was chairman of Verigy, a semiconductor equipment company, which focuses on IC, multi-chip modules, and subassembly test on manufacturing floors and in laboratories for communications, consumer electronics, computers and memory, including NOR, NAND and DRAM products. He has also served as division president of Agilent Technologies semiconductor test business, which was spun out to become Verigy, and held executive positions with Electroglas, IMS, Cadence and Kontron.
Mr. Barnes received a bachelor’s of science degree in environmental science from California State University. He holds a patent in simultaneous microprocessor emulation and logic analysis probing techniques.
Hans Geyer
Hans Geyer retired from Intel Corporation in Jan. 2007 as Corporate Vice President, after 27 years of service. Mr. Geyer held several senior executive positions during his tenure at Intel, including general manager of Intel Corporation’s Storage Group, general manager, Networking and Storage Group, general manager of European Operations, general manager of the 386/486 microprocessor division, general manager of the Flash memory group, and general manager of the cellular and application processor group.
Prior to joining Intel, Mr. Geyer was involved in hardware and software development for intelligent and point-of-sales terminals at Siemens AG, Germany.
Mr. Geyer previously served as a director on the board of Trident Microsystems until February 2010.
Mr. Geyer studied computer science and mathematics at the Technical University of Munich and holds a masters degree (Diplom-Informatiker) in computer science. He is also an alumni of INSEAD.
John H. Kispert
John H. Kispert joined Spansion as the company’s CEO with 15 years experience in the semiconductor industry, with a broad-based background spanning executive, financial and operational roles. Most recently, Mr. Kispert spent 13 years in a number of finance and operational roles at KLA-Tencor including President, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Financial Officer. During his tenure at KLA-Tencor, a leading semiconductor equipment company with more than $2.5 billion in revenue and a global workforce of more than 6,000 employees, Mr. Kispert played an instrumental role in several of the company's most critical initiatives including operational and organizational restructuring following the 1997 merger between KLA Instruments and Tencor Instruments. Mr. Kispert also held various executive management positions at KLA-Tencor including Vice President of Operations with responsibility for customer service and support, manufacturing, and sales operations. Prior to KLA-Tencor Mr. Kispert held several senior management positions with IBM.
Mr. Kispert received a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Grinnell College and his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Paul Mercadante
Paul Mercadante is a Managing Director at the Silver Lake Sumeru Fund. The Silver Lake Sumeru Fund is focused on the firm’s middle market strategy. Before joining Silver Lake, Mr. Mercadante was a partner with Shah Capital Partners. Prior to that, he was President of Force Computers, a leading provider of embedded computing systems and a wholly owned subsidiary of Solectron, Inc. that was subsequently sold to Motorola, Inc. in 2004. Previously, Mr. Mercadante was Vice President of strategic planning for Solectron’s $2 billion Technology Solutions Business Unit.
Mr. Mercadante is a Director at several companies, including: Ashtech, Mobile Messenger, and In Force Computers.
Mr. Mercadante received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the State University of New York.
William E. Mitchell
William E. Mitchell is founding partner of Sequel Capital Management, LLC, which invests in managed IT services companies. Prior to forming this venture, Mr. Mitchell served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Arrow Electronics, Inc. and held executive leadership positions at Nashua Corporation, Sequel, Inc., and Solectron Global Services, which was acquired by Flextronics International.
Mr. Mitchell also serves on the boards of directors of Brown-Forman Corporation, Rogers Corporation, Humana Incorporated and National Semiconductor Corporation.
Mr. Mitchell holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He received his master's degree in engineering from the University of Michigan.
Ajay Shah
Ajay Shah is the Founding Managing Director of the Silver Lake Sumeru Fund. Prior to Silver Lake, Mr. Shah founded Shah Capital Partners. Prior to Shah Capital Partners, Mr. Shah founded and managed the Technology Solutions Business of Solectron, a $2 billion business. Mr. Shah was previously the CEO of SMART Modular Technologies, a company that he co-founded in 1989 and led through its public offering in 1995.
Mr. Shah is a Director at several companies, including: TES, CMAC, Power-One, Ashtech, AVI-SPL, Mobile Messenger and is Chairman of the Board at SMART Modular.
Mr. Shah received a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Baroda and a Master’s in Engineering Management from Stanford University.
Clifton Thomas Weatherford
Clifton Thomas Weatherford brings over 37 years in global technology expertise with senior financial positions at Business Objects, NETCOM On-Line Communication Services, Logitech, Texas Instruments, Schlumberger and Tandem Computers. Mr. Weatherford has been involved in successful IPOs, both as chief financial officer and audit committee chair. Mr. Weatherford retired in January 2003 as EVP and CFO of Business Objects S.A.
Mr. Weatherford is a director at several public companies, including: Tesco Corporation, Advanced Analogic Technologies, SMART Modular Technologies, Mellanox Technologies, as well as several private companies.
Mr. Weatherford received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (BBA) in Finance from the University of Houston (Texas).