Hosted Session: A to B: Overcoming Tech Startup Challenges

WALDEN C. RHINES is President and CEO of Cornami, Inc., a fabless software and semiconductor company focused on intelligent computing for fully homomorphic encryption and machine learning. He was previously CEO of Mentor Graphics for 25 years and Chairman of the Board for 17 years.

During his tenure at Mentor, revenue nearly quadrupled and market value of the company increased 10X.Prior to joining Mentor Graphics, Dr. Rhines was Executive Vice President, Semiconductor Group, responsible for TI’s worldwide semiconductor business. During his 21 years at TI, he was President of the Data Systems Group, held numerous semiconductor executive management positions and was directly responsible for the creation and growth of the digital signal processing business which eventually comprised about 50% of TI’s total revenue.Dr. Rhines has served on the boards of Cirrus Logic, QORVO, TriQuint Semiconductor, Global Logic, PTK Corp., SRC and as Chairman of the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (five two-year terms).

He is a Lifetime Fellow of the IEEE and has served on the Board of Trustees of Lewis and Clark College, the National Advisory Board of the University of Michigan and Industrial Committees advising Stanford University and the University of Florida.Dr. Rhines holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science and PhD in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, a master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University and Honorary Doctor of Technology degrees from the University of Florida and Nottingham Trent University.

Alexandra Wright-Gladstein is a co-founder of Ayar Labs and was its founding CEO. Ayar Labs makes computers faster and more energy efficient by using light to move data between chips. Alex met her technical co-founders, the inventors of the world's first processor to communicate using light, while getting an MBA at MIT in 2014. As CEO of Ayar Labs, Alex raised the company's first $27M in venture funding, as well as several million in non-dilutive government grants, and recruited the company's current CEO, semiconductor and supercomputing industry veteran Charles Wuischpard. The company has now raised over $60M in venture funding, has over 60 employees, and is headquartered in California with offices expanding around the world. Prior to founding Ayar Labs, Alex was the Energy Entrepreneurship Practice Leader at MIT, and prior to that, she was an energy efficiency program manager and energy markets specialist at smartgrid company EnerNOC. 

Frank Thiel is an articulate and inspiring technologically-grounded business leader specializing in partnering with seed stage startup companies.  With over 30 years in the semiconductor industry, he has a demonstrated history of creating innovative products and a proven ability to maximize profitability.   Frank founded Kolvenier Solutions LLC to help startup companies beat the odds to success through specialized semiconductor, communications, and medical IoT consulting.  He is a lead mentor at The University of Texas Austin Technology Incubator helping deep tech startups address the world’s challenges, and is also an advisor to Silicon Catalyst, the world’s only incubator focused exclusively on accelerating solutions in silicon.  Prior to that Frank was the VP and General Manager for Microsemi’s Mixed Signal & RF IC businesses, where he drove the strategies that more than doubled the revenue of that $130M+ division with industry leading products such as ultra-low power radios for implantable medical and IoT, high-reliability precision sensors, RF Wi-Fi edge devices and more.  Frank served on the executive staff of Zarlink Semiconductor as the VP of Engineering and helped manage the company through its ultimate acquisition by Microsemi.  In 2017 Frank gave a Keynote speech at IoTNext in Bangalore, India.  For 10 years Frank chaired the IEEE Bipolar Circuits and Technology Meeting.  He is a published author and inventor with 19 issued US patents.  Frank owes his technical aptitude to his early career at Texas Instruments as an analog integrated circuit design engineer.  Living in the Texas Hill Country near Austin, Frank, his wife, and their daughter spend as much time as they can outdoors, travel worldwide, and celebrate good food.  When home, Frank finds time to play his grand piano or one of his guitars (but not at the same time).

Ben Ward is a specialist semiconductor Consultant working for MRL Consulting Group. For the past three years, Ben has exclusively been working with semiconductor companies helping them grow their technical and commercial teams across the US. With start-ups, Ben has been acting as a talent advisor, helping founders develop an aggressive hiring strategy that will mean their start up business can fire on all cylinders, with the right talent, in the right place. 

Established in 1997, MRL is an international recruitment consultancy specialising within the niche high technology and financial markets. Whether they are delivering world-class talent or helping candidates surpass their career aspirations, their award winning team strive to push the boundaries and deliver the highest level of service. Their meticulous approach to identification, understanding complex requirements and delivery means MRL are trusted by some of the biggest tech names across the world.