Dr. Prabhu Goel, Chairman and Founder

Dr. Prabhu Goel is co-Chairman of the Cabana Hotels (India) group. Dr Goel is an active private venture investor, serving on the Board of Directors of several private companies and Synplicity, Inc. (NASD: SYNP).  Since 1991 he has invested in over 30 private companies and served on many of their boards.  Dr. Goel was Division President and Director of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CDN) until 1991.  Before joining Cadence, Dr. Goel was the CEO/Chairman of Gateway Design Automation Corporation, which was acquired by Cadence Design Systems in 1989. Prior to Gateway, Dr. Goel held management and technical positions at IBM. At IBM, he received the IBM Corporate Award for Outstanding Innovation. Dr. Goel won the 2003 IEEE Industrial Pioneer Award for his work on design modeling and design verification through Verilog and Verilog-based design. The award honors outstanding scientists and engineers who successfully translate research into commercial products or applications. Dr. Goel graduated from IIT Kanpur and was the recipient of the President's Gold Medal for Academic Excellence. He  received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

 Dr. Goel is an active philanthropist and has supported many organizations with his contributions. One of his favorites is the Foundation for Excellence (www.ffe.org) which he founded in 1994. FFE has funded over eight thousand students in India - at high school and college levels.  He was a founding member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur) www.tie.org - the largest organization of entrepreneurs in the word - with chapters in 42 countries.

Dr. Rajeeva Lahri, President, CEO and Founder

Rajeeva Lahri has over 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, focusing primarily on technology and operations. Most recently, Rajeeva was CTO and Executive VP of Worldwide Operations at Intersil Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high performance analog semiconductors. He was key in transforming Intersil into a high performance analog product company with significant improvement in operating performance. Prior to Intersil Corporation, Dr. Lahri had served in many operational and technology leadership positions: Senior VP of Technology and Operations at Elantec (acquired by Intersil Corp), Deputy CTO of Philips Semiconductors, and Senior VP of Corporate Technology for VLSI Technology Inc (acquired by Philips). Prior to those, he held various management and technical positions at National Semiconductor and Hewlett Packard. Dr. Lahri holds a MS degree in Physics and a Master of Technology degree in Materials Science, both from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. In addition, Dr. Lahri holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo, New York. Rajeeva is a charter member of TiE, and a founder of Fab Owners Association (FOA; www.waferfabs.org), a forum for semiconductor fabrication owners to discuss and act on specific semiconductor manufacturing issues in a cooperative environment.

Rich Beyer, Chairman and CEO, Freescale Semiconductor

Rich Beyer is the Chairman & CEO of Freescale Semiconductor, a global leader in embedded semiconductor design and manufacturing. Rich joined Freescale from Intersil Corporation where he was President, Chief Executive Officer and Director. Rich joined Intersil in 2002 when it acquired Elantec Semiconductor, Inc. Prior to joining Elantec, Mr. Beyer served as President, Chief Operating Officer and Director of VLSI Technology, Inc. from 1996 to 1998. Prior to his term at VLSI, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of National Semiconductor Corporation from 1995 to 1996 and President of National Semiconductor's Communications and Computing Group from 1993 to 1995. Before joining National, Beyer served in a number of senior management positions in the telecommunications and computer industries. Mr. Beyer is on the Board of Directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association. Mr. Beyer served three years as an officer in the United States Marine Corps. He earned a BS degree and an MS degree in Russian from Georgetown University, and an MBA degree in Marketing and International Business from Columbia University.

Mr. Jan Lobbezoo

Mr. Lobbezoo retired at the end of 2006 as Executive Vice President of Philips International B.V. He was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Philips Semiconductors International B.V., an affiliate of Philips and currently known as NXP Semiconductors, between May 1994 and September 2005. He joined Philips in 1970 and served in a number of finance and control positions in Nigeria, South Africa and Scandinavia as well as in the Netherlands. Mr. Lobbezoo has served on the board of directors of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd and continues to serve as board member of FEI Company Inc., and as supervisory board member of Smartrac N.V. Mr. Lobbezoo holds a Masters degree in Business Economics from Erasmus University, Rotterdam in Netherlands.

Ajit Manocha, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations, Spansion

Ajit Manocha is currently Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations and a member of the Executive Management Board at Spansion. He is responsible for all aspects of the company’s global manufacturing operations, IT and supply chain management, including product cost, yields, quality, reliability, on-time delivery, manufacturing cycle times and customer service. Collectively, he has more than 28 years of global expertise in R&D, manufacturing, M&A, sales and general management. A seasoned semiconductor expert, Ajit has held several senior executive and management positions at NXP, Philips Semiconductors, AT&T Microelectronics and AT&T Bell Laboratories. Most recently, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Manufacturing Officer at NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductors), where he was responsible for heading up worldwide IC manufacturing, supply chain management and purchasing for the semiconductor division. While at NXP, Manocha has most recently been a member of the Board of Directors of International Semitech, the Crolles Alliance (a 300mm development and manufacturing joint venture between STM, Freescale and Phillips), ASMC (a publicly traded foundry in China) and chairman of the BoD of SSMC (a joint venture between NXP and TSMC).

Mr. B. B. Patel, Founder

Mr. Patel is a successful entrepreneur and investor with expansive business and management experience. He has successfully built his own company, BPR Properties, which owns and operates 11 select full service hotels in California. He is currently Director and a Member of the Loan Committee  of Innovative Bank in Northern California, and has served on the board of three community banks in California.    By being the first hotelier to introduce alternative energy into select and full service hotels in Silicon Valley, Mr. Patel has developed a strong interest in this arena.  He is actively involved in philanthropy, supporting numerous educational and literacy projects in India, and serves as director of several non-profit organizations.  Mr. Patel is a  Charter Member of TiE. Mr. Patel holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University, Pennsylvania and is a registered Control Systems Engineer in California.

Dr. Rajeeva Lahri, President, CEO and Founder

Rajeeva Lahri has over 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, focusing primarily on technology and operations. Most recently, Rajeeva was CTO and Executive VP of Worldwide Operations at Intersil Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high performance analog semiconductors. He was key in transforming Intersil into a high performance analog product company with significant improvement in operating performance. Prior to Intersil Corporation, Dr. Lahri had served in many operational and technology leadership positions: Senior VP of Technology and Operations at Elantec (acquired by Intersil Corp), Deputy CTO of Philips Semiconductors, and Senior VP of Corporate Technology for VLSI Technology Inc (acquired by Philips). Prior to those, he held various management and technical positions at National Semiconductor and Hewlett Packard. Dr. Lahri holds a MS degree in Physics and a Master of Technology degree in Materials Science, both from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. In addition, Dr. Lahri holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo, New York. Rajeeva is a charter member of TiE, and a founder of Fab Owners Association (FOA; www.waferfabs.org), a forum for semiconductor fabrication owners to discuss and act on specific semiconductor manufacturing issues in a cooperative environment.

Mr. Gunter Ziegenbalg, Managing Director, Signet Solar GmbH

Mr. Ziegenbalg joins Signet Solar from ZMD AG, a leading supplier of analog mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuits, where he was Executive Vice President of Foundry Operations since September 2002. He served as the President of ZMD America, Inc. from its founding in1996. He has held several management positions at ZMD, in IC design, technology development, manufacturing and technical marketing. Prior to that Mr Ziegenbalg worked as a nuclear physicist at the Nuclear Research Center Dresden, Rossendorf. He has a Masters degree in Nuclear Physics from University of Technology, Dresden, and an Executive MBA Degree from Pepperdine University. Mr. Ziegenbalg is a founding member of Fab Owners Association (FOA).

Dr. Keshav Prasad, Vice President, Business Development

Dr. Keshav Prasad joins Signet Solar from Applied Materials, Inc. a global leader in nanomanufacturing technology solutions, where he most recently was the Managing Director/General Manager of Applied Materials' subsidiary in India.  Dr. Prasad was instrumental in establishing Applied Materials’ Global Development Centers in India, China, and Russia, transforming worldwide product engineering and software development capabilities.  While at Applied Materials, Dr. Prasad served in multiple executive management positions spanning semiconductor manufacturing equipment design and development, product engineering, product support, global operations, and business transformation.  Prior to this, Dr. Prasad was a scientist at IBM's Advanced Packaging Technology Development Center in New York. He earned both his Master's and doctorate degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University and attended the Stanford Executive Management Program. Dr. Prasad is an active supporter of the American India Foundation Digital Divide Program, dedicated to bridging the education and digital divide in India.

Dr. Bijan Moslehi, Vice President, Manufacturing

Dr. Moslehi has over 22 years of operational and R&D experience in the semiconductor industry, covering chip manufacturing process and equipment, and wafer fab technology. He most recently was CTO of The Noblemen Group, an investment banking, strategic advisory, and business development firm. Bijan has held senior technology and marketing management and engineering positions at several semiconductor manufacturing companies (Philips/VLSI Technology, Hewlett-Packard, National/Fairchild Semiconductor) and capital equipment manufacturers (KLA-Tencor, Applied Materials and Mattson). Dr. Moslehi holds a Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering) and two Master’s degrees (Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science) all from Stanford University. Currently, he serves on the Advisory Boards of several Silicon Valley high tech companies.

Dr. Karl-Heinz Stegemann, Vice President, Technology

Dr. Stegemann joins Signet Solar from ZMD, AG, Dresden, Germany where he was Vice President for Process Development and Integration. At ZMD, he has held several management positions, working on complex projects for DRAM, analog CMOS and optical technologies. Dr. Stegemann has a deep background in thin films and holds various patents in the areas of SOI, DRAM memory cells, special oxidation and deposition technologies. He has been involved in numerous Europe-wide research projects developing specialized semiconductor technologies. He currently serves as the Chair for R&D project approval committee at the European Union. Dr. Stegemann holds a Ph.D. degree in Semiconductor Physics and Laser Annealing from Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.

Sanjay Arora, Vice President, Finance

Sanjay Arora joins Signet Solar from Intersil Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high performance analog semiconductors, where he was most recently Director of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. In the corporate finance capacity, Sanjay was responsible for the financial planning and analysis of an $800 million business, including the management of the company’s annual strategic planning process, expense management, and R&D and operational effectiveness metrics. In his investor relations role, he communicated corporate strategy, business outlook, and financial information to the investment community in addition to managing all aspects of quarterly earnings conference calls. Sanjay also has extensive experience in SEC reporting, operations, and accounting, as well as managing successful mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Intersil, he served as Project Manager at Xerox Corporation, where he was instrumental in the deployment of operational excellence process that resulted in improvements in operational profitability and in improving business processes in over 6000 offsite accounts. Sanjay holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pune, India, and an MBA in Finance from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.