The Board
Jonathan Brooks
Chairman of the Board
Jonathan Brooks is a non-executive Director of Aveva Group plc (LSE), e2v technologies plc (LSE) and Xyratex Limited (NASDAQ). He is also a non-executive Director of Sophos plc. Between 1995 and 2002 he was Chief Financial Officer and a Director of ARM Holdings plc, prior to which he performed a variety of financial roles for the Accor Group in London and Paris.
Graham O’Keeffe
Director
Graham O'Keeffe joined Atlas Venture in 1998 where he focuses on investments in the semiconductor and wireless sectors. Most recently he was Product Marketing Director at handheld computer specialist Psion Computers and previously held engineering and operational roles at Nokia Mobile Phones. He sits on the boards of Icera Semiconductor, RadioScape, ShoZu, and Ubiquisys.
Richard Irving
Director
Based in Silicon Valley, Richard Irving co-founded Pond Venture Partners in 1997 and has twenty-five years' experience in venture capital, business management, marketing and engineering in technology companies including AT&T Bell Labs, AMD, Brooktree, and Irving International. Starting as a chip designer at Bell Labs, and strategic marketing manager at AMD, Mr Irving later managed three business units at Brooktree with full P&L responsibility both prior to and following the company's initial public offering. These grew from as small as $1M up to $90M. He has been involved in numerous IPOs, acquisitions, and private financings. In addition to picoChip, Mr Irving serves as a director of Acco Semiconductor, Transitive, Gigle, and Nanotech. He has a BSc (1st Class Hons) and an MSc in Electrical Engineering from Manchester University.
Dan Rosen
Director
Dan Rosen is a Senior Associate at Highland Capital Partners, focusing on communications and semiconductor related investments. Mr Rosen represents Highland on the board of picoChip and is actively involved with Optasite, Quattro Wireless, Radiospire and TriStar. Prior to joining Highland, he worked at HarbourVest Partners, LLC, where he invested in and worked closely with several growth-stage technology and communications businesses, including Axerra Networks, eHelp (acquired by Macromedia), MobileAccess Networks, Nuera Communications (acquired by AudioCodes), and Quallaby (acquired by Micromuse). Mr Rosen has also worked in corporate development at RSA Security (RSAS, acquired by EMC), as a software consultant for American Management Systems (AMSY, acquired by CGI Group), and independently consulted to several communications start-ups. He has a BS, Finance and Information Systems from University of Pennsylvania, and MBA from Harvard Business School.
Stuart Paterson
Director
Stuart Paterson is a Partner at Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) focusing on investments in communications and semiconductor technology. Recent investments include the wireless distributed antenna systems business Zinwave; Virtensys, a fabless semiconductor developing PCI Express switching technology to support the next wave of server virtualization; Gigle Semiconductor, the "Anywire" home networking chip company and the online flight search engine Skyscanner. His successes include a number of flotations on the London Stock Exchange including IndigoVision, Orbital Software and CSR, as well as a number of successful trade exits to Cisco, Agilent and Rolls Royce. Mr Paterson has led many successful A round start-ups as well as a number of late stage deals with many of the other leading UK and international venture capital firms over the past decade. In addition, a number of his investments have closed important strategic investments from the likes of Cisco, Intel, TI, Philips, ARM, and Sony. He has a joint degree in Accounting & Computing Science, a CA from his career at Ernst & Young and has completed the Harvard Business School, Venture Capital Executive program.
Jamie Urquhart
Non-Executive Director
Jamie Urquhart has been a Director of picoChip Designs since March 2002. He is a non-executive Director of nCipher plc (joining the board when it was a private company in January 2000) and Antenova Limited (July 2002). Mr Urquhart is VP of Licensing and a Director of Splashpower Inc, a private company developing wireless power transfer systems. Prior to Splashpower, he was with ARM Holdings plc, from its inception (as a co-founder) in November 1990 until November 2002. During that time he undertook a number of roles, including VP Sales and Marketing, Chief Operating Officer (at the time of the ARM’s IPO) and Director, and latterly Chief Strategy Officer. Before that he was with Acorn Computers Limited, joining in 1984 as a VLSI Design Engineer, becoming VLSI Design Manager of the VLSI Design Group. Prior to that he was with Plessey Research Limited, where he worked on analog and digital developments utilizing high-speed CMOS, bipolar and gallium arsenide technologies. Mr Urquhart holds a BSc from Bath University in Physics and Physical Electronics.
Guillaume d'Eyssautier
Chief Executive Officer & President
Guillaume d'Eyssautier joined picoChip from Cadence Design Systems in Bracknell, UK, where he was Senior VP and General Manager EMEA. Prior to joining Cadence, Guillaume served at executive and board level in IBM technology Group EMEA in Switzerland, Rockwell Semiconductor Systems in France and GEC-Plessey Semiconductors. His early career included engineering, marketing and sales positions at Philips Semiconductors, Signetics Corp. USA, and Matra Harris Semiconductors. Educated in France, Mr d'Eyssautier holds an MSc from ISEP and MBA from INSEAD. He is a member of the Global Semiconductor Alliance Board of Directors - (GSA – formerly the FSA – Fables Semiconductor Association). In addition to this role, Mr. d′Eyssautier also serves on GSA’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Leadership Council (EMEA).
Peter Claydon
Chief Operating Officer and co-founder, picoChip
Peter Claydon co-founded picoChip in 2000. Since then he has been responsible for the development and commercialization of picoChip's semiconductor products and reference designs for 3G and WiMAX wireless systems, along with raising three rounds of venture funding. He currently holds the position of Chief Operating Officer. Prior to founding picoChip he served in a variety of engineering and managerial positions in Marconi, Brooktree and Pioneer, and was general manager of Oak Technology Ltd, which was acquired by Conexant Systems Inc in early 2000.
Abdul Guefor
Investor Representative
Abdul Guefor is Managing Director for Intel Capital EMEA. He is one of two Managing Directors for this sizeable region which stretches from Russia to Portugal. His responsibilities include setting investment strategy, reviewing proposals and deal structuring. He is also a member of the investment committee for EMEA deals. The regional investment team consists of some 20 investment professionals located in seven countries. Investment focus areas include wireless communications, digital content and software. Before joining Intel in 1999, Mr Guefor spent seven years with PricewaterhouseCoopers Transaction Support. Before PwC, he was a design engineer at Plessey Semiconductors and Ikerlan research centre, Spain. Mr Guefor is a Chartered Accountant and holds an honours degree in Electronic Engineering.
Jean-Michel Beghin
Investor Representative
Jean-Michel Beghin joined the venture capital sector after more than 10 years of engineering, operational and consulting experience both in the Silicon Valley and in several European countries. After holding a position as Partner of the Natexis Venture Capital activity, one of the first Private Equity firms in Europe, he joined the Venture Capital activity of the Rothschild Group. Prior to joining the venture capital sector, he worked throughout Europe as Senior Manager in the Strategy and Management Consulting department of Ernst & Young and in the Corporate Finance area. Before his European experience, Mr Beghin held various engineering and management roles in Silicon Valley at several small and large companies including Fault Tolerant Systems, and Hewlett-Packard.
Brian Kang
Investor Representative
Brian Kang is a Managing Director of Samsung Ventures and makes investments in the telecommunications and digital media sector. Brian led Samsung Ventures' investments in Amlogic, Beceem Communications, DisplayLink, Fortemedia, Gracenote, PicoChip, Radioframe Networks, Seven Networks, Strix Systems, Starent Networks (NASDAQ: STAR), Teknovus, and Xponent. Prior to joining Samsung Ventures, Brian worked as a Business Development Manager at Samsung Electronics' Telecommunications System Division, building numerous business partnerships for the Division.
Brian holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo, MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington at Seattle, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Technical Advisory Board
Prof David May
Head of Computer Science, Bristol University
David May was previously chief architect at ST Microelectronics and the developer of the Occam programming language used for the Transputer developed at Inmos.
Simon Saunders
Chief technology officer, Cellular Design Services
Simon Saunders is an expert in antenna, modem and cellular architectures and leads a team developing and introducing innovative radio services within Cellular Design Services, as well as providing training and technical support services. He was previously a senior lecturer at the University of Surrey and part of the Centre for Communication Systems Research and worked for leading mobile companies such as Philips, Ascom and Motorola on private mobile radio, paging and digital cellular systems.
Professor Wenbo Wang
Professor and Dean of School of Telecommunication Engineering at the Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications (BUPT) Wenbo Wang is one of the world’s leading authorities in the field of digital signal processing and wireless communications. In addition to his role at BUPT, Professor Wang is a member of the standing committee of Beijing Institute of Communication, and spent a period in the US working in a commercial R&D role. His current research interests include 3G, B3G and WiMAX radio transmission technology, wireless network theory, digital signal processing and software radio technology.