Israel Niv (Nadler), Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Niv is an experienced executive who combines experience in science and technology with marketing and operational experience. Dr. Niv was the founder and CEO of several start-up companies, a founder and General Manager of a company he helped taking public on NASDAQ and a Vice-President in a fortune 200 company. Dr. Niv is experienced in mergers and acquisitions. He sold two companies to large semiconductor equipment companies and integrated them successfully; he also acquired and integrated 3 small companies into his operations. Dr. Niv serves on the board of Palo Alto University (a psychology academic institution affiliated with Stanford), and is advisor to several start-ups and to SilicomVentures, an investment group.
In Late 1998 Dr. Niv co-founded and became the Chairman, and later CEO, of Optonics, Inc., which at the time was a leading supplier of design debug and failure analysis systems for high bandwidth timing analysis of transistor-to-transistor switching events. Dr. Niv sold Optonics to Credence Systems in late 2002 and served as a president and general manager of the Diagnostics and Characterization business Group (DCG): a division whose revenue rapidly grew from $2M in 2001 to $18.5M in 2004 and ultimately $52M in 2005. During his tenure at Credence, he was responsible for building DCG through internal development of new products, and successfully integrated the NPTest Probe Systems group after its acquisition by Credence Systems Corporation in June 2004.
In May of 1999, Dr. Niv co-founded BeyondWork - an on-line provider of employees benefits, mainly “Rewards and Recognition” system and Discount shopping. BeyondWork raised $15M during the Internet high days and served over 4000 companies. Dr. Niv served as the CEO and Chairman of the company until August 2001. Dr. Niv co-founded Opal Inc., a semiconductor equipment company, in December 1986. Opal was an innovator and a world leader in Automated CD-SEM metrology and in SEM Defect Review systems. He served as the Vice-President of Research and Development, later as the General Manager & Executive Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. He served on Opal's Board of Directors since 1994 and was part of a 3-man team that took Opal public in May 1995. Dr. Niv led the growth of Opal sales from $2.1M in 1991 to $65M in 1996. He became a Vice-President at Applied Materials, the world's largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer, when it acquired Opal Inc. in late 1996. At Applied Materials, Dr. Niv was responsible for the sales, marketing and business development of the Process Diagnostics and Control (PDC) Business group until the end of 1998 (over $150M in annual sales). Prior to Opal, Dr. Niv was a senior physicist at Optrotech (currently Orbotech), the world leader in PCB and FPD inspection.
Dr. Niv received his B.Sc. in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In 1982 Dr. Niv was awarded the Weizmann Postdoctoral Fellow. From 1982 to 1985 he worked as a Postdoctorate at the University of Southern California (USC) and published over 10 scientific papers. In 1992, Dr. Niv completed the AEA/Stanford Executive Institute for Management of High-Technology Companies.
Tameyasu Anayama Vice President, Field Operations
Mr. Anayama has a broad range of experience in management of semiconductor equipment operations. From 1974 to 1996, he has held various positions including field engineering, sales and marketing, personnel manager and general manager for Schlumberger Oilfield Services, working in 14 different countries. Mr Anayama served as President of Schlumberger K.K. in Japan from 1997 to 2001, From 2002 to 2004, Marketing Manager then General Manager of the Probe Systems Division of NPtest (formerly Schlumberger's ATE division). From 2004 to 2007, he has held various management positions including Product Development, Marketing and General Manager of Diagnostics and Characterization Group at Credence. Mr. Anayama received his BS ME from Waseda University in Japan.
Bob Connors Vice President, Finance and Administration, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Connors has over 15 years of experience as CFO of hardware and software companies in Silicon Valley. Most recently he has served as a financial consultant for area firms such as Hewlett Packard and Macrovision. Through 2007 he was CFO at Energy Focus, a high tech lighting company, where he served for nine years. Prior to 1998, he held the role of US CFO and Controller along with other financial roles with Micro Focus Group Plc, a software firm. Mr. Connors has led two firms through the SEC process to go public on NASDAQ and completed 13 acquisitions. He has a BA. from Occidental College in Physics and Math and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from Washington University in St. Louis
Daniel Cotton, Ph.D. Vice President, Research
Dr. Cotton served as Director of Engineering at Optonics, Inc. from 2000 to 2003. After the acquisition of Optonics by Credence Systems Corporation, he assisted with the integration of the NPTest Probe Systems group and served as Vice President of the Design Analysis Group, which included marketing, engineering and applications responsibility for the development of IC probing products. As Senior Director of Engineering in Credence's DCG group, he successfully combined three product line engineering teams into a single division-wide engineering group.
Dr. Cotton received his B.S. degree from the University of California at Davis and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, all in Physics, in 1986, 1990, and 1991, respectively. He continued on at Berkeley for a year as an Assistant Research Physicist and subsequently moved to Boston University, first as a Senior Research Assistant and then as an Assistant Research Professor until April, 2000. This academic career was in the field of experimental EUV and FUV aeronomy and included several sounding rocket programs and lead in a small satellite project, TERRIERS. He has 38 publications in this field.
Paul Sakamoto Vice President and General Manager, Lab Systems Group
Paul Sakamoto has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment industry. Prior to joining DCG Systems, Paul was the CEO DFT Microsystems in Saint Laurent, Quebec. Previously, he was CEO of Inovys Corporation, Pleasanton, California. Inovys was a maker of semiconductor test software and hardware that uses advanced electrical defect isolation methodology to locate faults in the most advanced silicon chips. Inovys was successfully merged with Verigy Inc. (NASDAQ: VRGY) at the end of 2007. Earlier, Paul was Vice President, General Manager of the Memory Products Division ("MPD") at Credence Systems Corporation. Under his management, MPD grew from zero to over $70M in annual revenues. While at Credence, he has also held posts as VP of N. American Sales and VP of Customer Marketing and created a number of "Design to Test" partnerships with customers and software developers. This resulted in cutting semiconductor product introduction times at these customers by up to 3 months per new design, to the mutual benefit of both these select customers and Credence. Prior to joining Credence, he held various sales and engineering positions including Vice President of Sales at MCT (Micro Component Technology), Director of Sales at Megatest Corporation and six years of test and product engineering at Intel Corporation, finishing as a Product Engineering Manager. Paul received his BSEE/CE from Oregon State University in 1977 from which he also received an Oregon Stater Academy of Distinguished Engineers award in 2010. Paul is a native of Portland, Oregon.
Randy Schussler Vice President and General Manager, IRIS IR Inspection Systems
Mr. Schussler has over 20 years of leading the growth of high technology companies. An accomplished executive with a passion for operational excellence, his vision and experience has driven profitable, sustained growth in a variety of enterprises, large and small, around the world. With a broad set of experiences to draw on, Mr. Schussler has used his skills to develop and grow businesses worldwide.
Prior to joining DCG Systems, Mr. Schussler's experience includes managing the Zyvex Instruments division, a leading supplier of nanoinstruments for use in semiconductor analysis. Mr. Schussler was also responsible for the growth of Flextronics’ business with two of its largest customers. He was also the original operations executive at Xtera Communications, a well-funded telecom startup at the peak of the dot com boom, growing it to a produced run rate of $80M per quarter. He drove the manufacturing operations in the United States, Mexico and China while with STB/ 3dfx. During his tenure, the company grew from <$100M to greater than $300M in less than three years.
Mr. Schussler also had significant impact growing revenue and profitability in a variety of business units at Reliance Com/ Tec, DSC and Texas Instruments. His roles in Product Management, Project Management, Supply Chain Management and Engineering are the foundation for his successes.
Mike Berkmyre General Manager, nanoInstruments
Mike Berkmyre began his college career studying engineering, but eventually switched over to business. He has an MBA in management and technology. Berkmyre began his career as an intern for Zyvex, which by then was already known as a leader in nanotechnology. He performed marketing studies and product management, and eventually became product development manager for the company. Berkmyre continued in his product management role after the acquisition of Zyvex Instruments (subsequently renamed the nanoInstruments Division) by DCG Systems, Inc. In late 2010, Berkmyre became the General Manager of DCG's nanoInstruments division.
Jeff Block Director Marketing, Lab Systems Group
Mr. Block brings nearly 14 years of industry experience in semiconductor diagnostics, IC design validation, characterization, and electrical failure analysis. Mr. Block has worked to develop and market non-contact probing products and applications based primarily on the following technologies: Laser Voltage Probing (LVP), Time-resolved Photon Emission (TRPE), dynamic Photon Emission (d-PEM), and dynamic Laser Scanning Microscopy (d-LSM).
Before joining DCG Systems, Mr. Block worked as a Product Engineer at Sun Microsystems and Technical Specialist at Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions, debugging microprocessors and chipsets while finding ways to use optical diagnostic techniques more effectively. His previous work was studying the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic, carbon encapsulated nanoparticles. Mr. Block earned undergraduate degrees in physics and astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley. His graduate study and research was in solid state physics, with an emphasis on semiconductors, at San Jose State University.
Laurie Buzzell Vice President, Human Resources
Laurie Buzzell joined DCG Systems in August 2010 as vice president of human resources, responsible for supporting, growing and developing the DCG team. Ms. Buzzell brings to DCG over 15 years experience in human resources management, recruitment, and employee training and development. Prior to joining DCG Systems, Ms. Buzzell served as Vice President, Human Resources Credence Systems, Human Resources Director at Fortinet Network Secuitity, various human resources positions at Credence Systems and KLA-Tencor.
Dave Fucci Vice President, Operations
Mr. Fucci brings more than two decades of semiconductor and test industry experience to the role of directing DCG Systems manufacturing operations. In this position, Mr. Fucci is responsible for all Operations activities, including facilities and IT operations. He is chartered with management of the company’s materials and build plan, quality programs, and outsourcing strategy. Mr. Fucci served as Director of Manufacturing at Optonics, Inc. from 2000 to 2003. Prior to joining DCG Systems Mr. Fucci served in various positions at Credence Systems including Sr. Director of the Electrical Failure Analysis Product Group, Sr. Director of Circuit Analysis Product Management and over six years as Director of Operations. At Credence he led the implementation, production ramp and qualification of three product lines. Mr. Fucci received a BSEE from Northeastern University and an MBA from Boston University.
Ted Lundquist Director, Technology
Dr. Lundquist has more than 30 years of experience in ion, electron and photon optics and instrumentation, including 6 years at NASA developing beam techniques to calibrate spectrometers, and 15 years with Gatan developing beam systems systems. In 1994 Dr. Lundquist moved to the Schlumberger Diagnostic Systems Group to join what eventually became DCG Systems, Inc. He is currently Technology Director, and works closely with engineering to develop and deliver reliable, quality products as well as consult with customers to understandtheir future needs in order to guide DCG's ongoing development of leading edge technologies. Dr. Lundquist's charter is to provide productive solutions for IC diagnostics, focusing on enabling and improving the efficiency of physical diagnostics of ICs, especially first Silicon debug and yield.
Dr. Lundquist has the following degrees in physics: BS from MIT, X-ray scattering and detection with proportional counters; MS from U of MA, laser scattering from vacancies in solids; PhD from U of MD under Robert L Park, ionization and neutralization of sputtered atoms. He is a member of ASM-EDFA.
Ketan Shah General Manager, Circuit Edit
Mr. Shah has 21 years of in-depth technical and management experience with process control, automation and program management in wide range of industries including semiconductors. He started his career at Siemens in 1989 in the field of process automation and worked in design, development and field service for wide range of customers worldwide. Ketan also lead small to large size software development teams in a project management role for multinational companies developing control and automation solutions.
In 2000, he joined Schlumberger and managed product engineering in the field of emission microscopy for PICA and SSPD technologies. From 2004 thru 2007 Mr. Shah joined as engineering manager for Circuit Edit group in the Diagnostics and Characterization Group (DCG) of Credence. He continued his career in the newly independent DCG Systems in 2008 as Director of Engineering. During the following 4 years he worked in DCG Systems’ circuit edit group managing core engineering and development of state of the art flagship products: OptiFIB and P3X. Shah now continues to manage the next generation of 22nm technologies for circuit edit in the General Manager position. He holds patents and several publications in the field of emission microscopy and circuit edit.
Mr. Shah has a BS in Electronics Engineering from the Mumbai University in 1989 in India and an MS in Computer Science with Program Management from Carnegie Mellon University, USA in 2007.
