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Executive Profiles

 
Steven Laub, President and Chief Executive Officer
Steven Laub

Steven Laub has served as the President and CEO of Atmel since August 2006.

Prior to joining Atmel, Steven Laub was a technology partner at Golden Gate Capital Corporation, a private equity buyout firm, and the Executive Chairman of Teridian Semiconductor Corporation, a mixed signal semiconductor company. From 2004 to 2005, Mr. Laub was President and Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Image, Inc., a provider of semiconductor solutions. Prior to that time, Mr. Laub spent 13 years in executive positions (including President, Chief Operating Officer and member of the Board of Directors) at Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, a supplier of programmable logic devices and related software. Before joining Lattice Semiconductor, Mr. Laub was a partner at Bain and Company, a global management consulting firm.

Mr. Laub holds a degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (BA) and a law degree from Harvard Law School (JD).

 
Tsung-Ching Wu Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Office of the President
Tsung-Ching Wu

Tsung-Ching Wu has served as a director of Atmel since 1985, as Vice President, Technology from January 1986 to January 1996, as Executive Vice President and General Manager from January 1996 to 2001 and as Executive Vice President, Office of the President since 2001. Mr. Wu holds degrees in electrical engineering from the National Taiwan University (B.S.), the State University of New York at Stony Brook (M.S.) and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.).

 
Walter Lifsey, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Operations
Walter Lifsey

Mr. Lifsey joined Atmel from International Rectifier Corporation where he was Executive Vice President of Operations. Prior to International Rectifier, he was Director of Global Marketing and Planning for AMP Inc. and held Operational and Financial Management positions at TRW Corporation. Mr. Lifsey holds a B.A. degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

 
Robert Avery, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer
Robert Avery

Mr. Avery was appointed Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer in 2005. Prior to becoming the CFO, Bob was Atmel's Vice President and Corporate Director of Finance with responsibilities including planning, business strategy and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Prior to joining Atmel in 1989, Mr. Avery spent six years with Honeywell, Inc. in various financial positions and six years providing audit services with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. He holds a B.S. degree in Accounting from Michigan State University.

 
Patrick Reutens, Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
Patrick Reutens

Patrick Reutens has served as Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Atmel since September 2006.

Mr. Reutens joined Atmel from Silicon Image, Inc., a semiconductor company focused on the secure distribution, presentation and storage of high definition content, where he served as Chief Legal Officer. Mr. Reutens has extensive senior-level legal experience in the technology sector, having served as senior vice president, corporate development and legal affairs at Immersion Corp., as vice president of strategic licensing and intellectual property for Preview Systems, a software/internet company enabling distribution of music, video and other digital products, and earlier as director of licensing and corporate counsel for MIPS Technologies. Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Reutens counseled high-growth technology companies while an attorney at the Venture Law Group and at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.

Mr. Reutens holds a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Western Australia, a PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

 
John Klinestiver, Vice President, Human Resources
John Klinestiver

Mr. Klinestiver joined Atmel from Maxtor Corporation where he was senior vice president for worldwide human resources. Prior to Maxtor, John was vice president of worldwide human resources for Kinetics and held executive and management positions with Hynix Corporation, Fujitsu America, Inc. and CBS Corporation. Mr. Klinestiver holds an M.S. degree in industrial organization psychology from California State University, San Francisco.

 
Rod Erin, VP/GM of Automotive, Memory and Advanced Products
Rod Erin

Rod Erin has served as Vice President of Atmel's Non-Volatile Memory Segment since July 2007 and as Vice President of Atmel's Advanced Products Business Unit since July 2005.

Mr. Erin joined Atmel in 1989 and has held various management positions in Atmel's planning, operational, and IT organizations. Prior to joining Atmel, Mr. Erin spent 16 years with other semiconductor manufacturing companies, including Texas Instruments, Inmos, and Honeywell in a variety of IT management positions.

Mr. Erin holds B.S.E.E and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Illinois.

 
Ken Kwong, Vice President of Corporate Marketing
Ken Kwong

Ken Kwong is Atmel's Vice President of Corporate Marketing. He joined Atmel in 1991 as marketing manager for Non-Volatile Memories; he was promoted to director; and then to vice president. During his period in marketing, Ken helped Atmel achieve the distinction of being one of the top 5 suppliers in worldwide sales for flash and EPROM memories.

Previously in 1997, Ken assumed the role of Vice President of Sales for the Americas. His sales organization included direct sales, field application engineers, customer service, and major account support. He grew Americas' sales (over 30% from 2002 to 2006); increased design-ins at strategic customers; focused the Americas sales force on microcontrollers such that design registrations and revenue have increased year over year since 2002.

Ken received a BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California in 1966. He has over 30 years in strategic and tactical marketing, as well as in sales for leading edge products. He began his technical career as a design engineer at Westinghouse and system engineer at Litton Data System. Before joining Atmel, he gained diverse marketing experience by working at several start-ups and at industry leading semiconductor companies such as Intel and National Semiconductor, which augmented his expertise in sales and design.

 
Robert McConnell, Vice President and General Manager, RF and Automotive Business Unit
Robert McConnell

Robert McConnell has served as the Vice President and General Manager of Atmel's RF and Automotive Business Unit since January 2003.

Prior to this position, Robert McConnell was Chief Executive Officer of Cypress MicroSystems, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor and supplier of programmable system-on-a-chip solutions. Before Cypress, Mr. McConnell spent 27 years at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a Californian-based microprocessor company, in various senior positions including Vice President, General Manager, and Managing Director of several AMD Product Divisions. In addition to his executive functions, he was also responsible for AMD's offshore design centers in Germany and Singapore. Prior to AMD, he worked as a design engineer at Fairchild and Texas Instruments, both semiconductor companies.

Mr. McConnell holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois and an MBA from Pepperdine University, California.

 
Dr. Bernard Pruniaux, Vice President and General Manager, ASIC Business Unit
Bernard Pruniaux

Bernard Pruniaux is Atmel's Vice President with responsibility for the company's worldwide ASIC Business Unit. This covers programmable logic (PLDs, FPGAs and Field Programmable System Level Integration), customer-specific products (Customizable Microcontrollers, Cell-based ASICs and Gate Arrays), Smart Card ICs and a wide range of ASSPs (Application-specific Standard Products). In addition Bernard Pruniaux is Chief Executive Officer of Atmel's fabrication plant and product and technology development unit in Rousset, France.

Prior to joining Atmel, Bernard Pruniaux was Vice President for Manufacturing and Technology and then Chief Executive Officer at European Silicon Structures (ES2). ES2 was purchased by Atmel in 1995. His roots in Rousset date from 1979, when he was instrumental in the startup of Eurotechnique, as Operations Manager. Before that he served as Manager of Process Development and then Director of Wafer Fabrication at Texas Instruments, France.

His passion for free-style mountaineering gives an insight into the motivation that has driven him to the summit of the industry. He is often quoted as saying, "The challenge of microelectronics is that it is in constant evolution. There are always new peaks to conquer." His total commitment to teamwork and the maximum delegation of responsibilities is an ideal fit for the Atmel corporate culture.

Dr. Pruniaux graduated in Electronic Engineering from the Toulouse Ecole Supérieur d'Ingénieurs before gaining his Doctorate at LETI (Laboratoire d'Electroniquie, de Technologie et de l'Information) in Grenoble. He did further research at LETI for four years before joining Bell Laboratories, in New Jersey. During his time with Bell Laboratories, he did four years of research into Silicon and Gallium Arsenide high-speed devices.

 
Tom Roff, Vice President of Worldwide Manufacturing
Tom Roff

Tom Roff has been employed with Atmel for the past 12 years and has served as the Vice President of Worldwide Manufacturing since June 2004. Prior to his current position, Mr. Roff was the Director of Wafer Fab Operations, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Mr. Roff is a 25 year veteran of the semiconductor industry and has also held various management positions within operations, at companies such as; Hitachi Semiconductor, National Semiconductor, The Silicon Valley Group (SVG), and Intel Corporation.

Mr. Roff holds a B.S. degree in operations management from Eastern Illinois University.

 
Michel Thouvenin, Vice President of European Sales
Michel Thouvenin

Michel Thouvenin has served as the Vice President of Sales in Europe for Atmel since October 2001.

Prior to joining Atmel, Mr. Thouvenin was Vice President of Sales Worldwide for Temic Semiconductor. From 1985 to 1992, Mr. Thouvenin was also V.P. of Sales Worldwide for Matra Harris Semiconductors. Prior to that time, Mr. Thouvenin had spent 4 years as the International Sales Director for Thomson Semiconductor.

Mr. Thouvenin holds a degree in Engineering Electronics from the ESME, School of Engineering in Paris, France.

 
Robert Valiton, Vice President of Americas Sales and Global Sales Operations
Robert Valiton

Robert Valiton has served as the Vice President of Americas Sales and Global Sales Operations since April 2007.

Robert Valiton came to Atmel from Silicon Image, Inc. where he served as the Vice President of Worldwide Sales since 2004. Mr. Valiton joined Silicon Image in July 1999 from Summit Microelectronics where he was Eastern Area Sales and Applications Manager. Prior to Summit, Mr. Valiton served as Eastern Area Sales Manager for Benchmarq Microelectronics. From 1986 to 1996, Mr. Valiton held sales and marketing management positions with Rayovac Corporation's OEM Division, Power Convertibles Corporation's Power Management Division and Dow Chemical Company.

Mr. Valiton holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Massachusetts.

 
Jean Vaylet, Vice President and General Manager, Biometry Business Unit
Jean Vaylet

Mr. Jean Vaylet has been Atmel's Vice President since 2000. He is currently the General Manager of the Biometrics Business Unit.

He became Chairman of Thomson TCS in 1994. From 1994 to 2000, Jean Vaylet had moved the company focus from military to civil markets and specifically industrial and medical markets. He has also developed export sales.

From 1984 to 1994, Jean Vaylet held different positions. He was the Vice President of Thomson TCS Saint-Egrève where he was responsible in the areas of Finance, Purchase, Human Resources, Safety and Security and Legal Services. Mr. Vaylet was the General Secretary in charge of Thomson Militaries and Space Division where he occupied Administrative, Financial and Personnel responsibilities as a Director.

From 1972 to 1982, Jean Vaylet was the Financial and Administrative Director of EFCIS which he was part of the team who created the company.

Jean Vaylet holds a degree in Economics Science.

 
Yang Chiah Yee, Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific
Yang Yee

Mr. Yang Chiah Yee was recently appointed Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific.

Yang Chiah brings over 17 years of semiconductor industry sales experience, most recently from Xilinx, Inc. where he held the position of VP of Sales, Asia Pacific. Previously he was President of Asia Pacific for Memec. Yang Chiah received his Bachelors degree in Engineering from the National University of Singapore, and is a graduate of the Stanford-NUS Executive program.

 
Tom Wasilczyk, Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Tom Wasilczyk

Mr. Wasilczyk, comes to Atmel from Sun Microsystems, Inc. where he was Vice President of Information Technology Operations. He was responsible for worldwide IT operations including data center, network, voice and desktop systems. Prior to Sun, Tom held managerial positions within the IT organization at Tandem Computers and was formerly a management and systems consultant. Mr. Wasilczyk holds an M.S. degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University.


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