Steven Laub has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Atmel since August 2006 and as a director of Atmel since February 2006. From 2005 to August 2006, Mr. Laub was a technology partner at Golden Gate Capital Corporation, a private equity buyout firm, and the Executive Chairman of Teridian Semiconductor Corporation, a fabless semiconductor company. Prior to that time, Mr. Laub was President and Chief Executive Officer of Silicon Image, Inc., a provider of semiconductor solutions. Mr. Laub also 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. Prior to joining Lattice Semiconductor, Mr. Laub was a vice president and partner at Bain and Company, a global strategic consulting firm. Mr. Laub holds a degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.) and a degree from Harvard Law School (J.D.). As our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board, Mr. Laub draws upon over two decades of experience in an array of executive management roles within the semiconductor industry. In addition to his semiconductor industry experience, Mr. Laub brings to the Board the critical expertise gained over an accomplished career focusing on executive management, corporate and business unit strategy, operational expertise, mergers and acquisitions, and a background in law.
Tsung-Ching Wu has served as a director of Atmel since 1985 and as Executive Vice President, Office of the President since 2001. Mr. Wu served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Atmel from January 1996 to January 2001 and as Vice President, Technology from January 1986 to January 1996. 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.).
Mr. Wu, our co-founder and longest serving Board member, brings to our Board an extensive background spanning nearly thirty years in the semiconductor industry and a deep knowledge and understanding of Atmel's business, operations and employees. Mr. Wu has served as a member of our Board since 1985 and a member of our executive management team since 1986. 
Dr. Shahin Sharifzadeh was appointed to serve as Senior Vice President Worldwide Operations on October 26, 2012. Prior to his appointment by the company, Dr. Sharifzadeh worked for Cypress Semiconductor in various executive management positions, most recently serving as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Manufacturing and Operations and President for Operations in China.
Dr. Sharifzadeh received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and his MSEE and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Steve Skaggs joined Atmel in September 2010. Mr. Skaggs brings over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, most recently at Lattice Semiconductor where he served as President & CEO and also as CFO. Prior to Lattice, Mr. Skaggs was employed by Bain & Company, an international strategic consulting firm, where he specialized in high technology product strategy, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructurings. Mr. Skaggs holds a MBA degree from the Harvard Business School and a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Kazerounian was appointed to serve as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Microcontroller Business Unit in March 2013. Prior to his appointment by the company, Dr. Kazerounian worked for Freescale from 2009 to 2012, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Automotive, Industrial, Multi-Market Solutions Group (AISG) with annual revenue exceeding two billion dollars. This business consisted of microcontrollers, MEM’s sensors, and analog products. Prior to Freescale, Reza was at STMicroelectronics from 2000 to March 2009, where he served as President and CEO of STMicroelectronics, Inc. Americas and previously as Group Vice President and General Manager of the Smart Card and Programmable Systems Memory Divisions. Prior to joining STMicroelectronics, he was Chief Operating Officer with WaferScale Integration, Inc., which provides Programmable System Devices, where he was responsible for all operations, engineering and product development. WaferScale was acquired by STMicroelectronics in September 2000.
Dr. Kazerounian holds a B.S. degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1980, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1985, all in electrical engineering and computer sciences.
Rob Valiton has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Automotive, Memory and Aerospace Business Unit since March 2011. In this position, he is responsible for sales, marketing, engineering and operations for the Automotive, Memory and Aerospace business units. Since joining Atmel in April 2007, Mr. Valiton has served as the Vice President of Americas & EMEA Sales and Global Sales Operations. In this role, he has successfully managed to capitalize on long-term growth opportunities and to align the company's sales and support organization with key customer segments. Prior to Atmel, Valiton spent eight years at Silicon Image; the last three as Vice President of Worldwide Sales. At Silicon Image, he led the global Sales and FAE organizations; Customer Service and Support; Field Marketing; and Global Key Accounts where he managed the sales and adoption of DVI and HDMI as global standard interface technologies in the PC and CE markets. Prior to Silicon Image, Mr. Valiton held various worldwide sales and marketing positions at Summit Microelectronics, Bencharq Microelectronics, Rayovac Corporation's OEM Division, Power Convertibles Corporation's Power Management Division and Dow Chemical Company. Mr. Valiton holds a B.S. degree in Plastics Engineering from University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Scott Wornow joined Atmel, a leading semiconductor company, as Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer & Chief Compliance Officer in November 2010. Scott joined Atmel with over 20 years of legal and corporate experience. Before that, Scott served as a Corporate Partner at Baker Botts in Silicon Valley, where he founded its corporate practice, and also worked as a Partner at Goodwin Procter, in Palo Alto, and Paul Hastings in New York. Scott also served as EVP, Legal and Business Affairs at OpenTV Corp., an interactive television company, and Chief Restructuring Officer, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at OmniSky Corporation, one of the first wireless data providers. Scott earned his B.A. from the University of Virginia, B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Peter Jones serves as Vice President and General Manager of the Touch Business Unit. Previously, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Atmel's Microcontroller Business Unit. In 1994, Mr. Jones joined Atmel in the United Kingdom where he held various management positions in sales and marketing. Prior to joining Atmel, he worked in applications and sales management positions for numerous semiconductor companies, including Fujitsu. Prior to joining the semiconductor industry, Mr. Jones conducted research in solid state physics. He holds a B.S. in Applied Physics from Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom.
Vegard Wollan serves as Vice President and General Manager of the Touch Business Unit. Previously, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Atmel's Microcontroller Business Unit. Prior to this, he was Managing Director for Atmel’s AVR Microcontroller Business. Mr. Wollan is a co-inventor of the AVR® microcontroller architecture and holds several patents. He has worked in the semiconductor industry since 1991 in design engineering, marketing and as a board member and chairman. Mr. Wollan holds an M.S. degree from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Trondheim.
Sander Arts joined Atmel in September 2012 as Vice President of Corporate Marketing. Mr. Arts brings nearly 15 years of marketing and communications experience in the semiconductor industry.
Prior to Atmel, he was Vice President of Marketing and Communications at NXP Semiconductors (formerly Philips Semiconductors). Mr. Arts managed the global internal and external communications programs at Philips Semiconductors prior to the NXP spin-out in 2006.
Mr. Arts also developed, implemented and drove the concept of global integrated marketing campaigns, including social media, which resulted in an increase in sales, gross margin and mindshare. He reshaped NXP’s global marketing organization, built sales and credibility with customers and stakeholders across multiple, vertical business segments. Mr. Arts also drove award-winning digital and mobile marketing programs. In 2010, he drove all the marketing activities around NXP’s IPO.
Mr. Arts holds a Master’s degree from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (The Netherlands). He also holds a certificate in Strategic Marketing Management from the Executive Program at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. In addition, Mr. Arts is a member of the Dutch Reputation Forum and a member of the executive teaching staff for the Master of Science in Corporate Communications at Rotterdam Business School. He lectures at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and is a Member of the Advisory Board at Nijmegen University (advises the faculty of Arts) in The Netherlands.
Tom Roff joined Atmel in September, 1994 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.
Yang Chiah Yee was appointed Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific in March, 2008. Mr. Yee brings over 18 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. Mr. Yee received his Bachelors degree in Engineering from the National University of Singapore, and is a graduate of the Stanford-NUS Executive program.
Jalil Shaikh has served as Vice President and General Manager at Atmel since February 2010. Prior to joining Atmel, Mr. Shaikh was the CEO and Board Member of Ranch Energy Systems (RES), a privately-held alternative energy company where he was responsible for the company strategy, sales and marketing, and establishing the supply chain and sales channels in developing countries. Mr. Shaikh was also the Chief Operating Officer at privately-held semiconductor startup Synerchip. Prior to Synerchip, Mr. Shaikh was the CEO and Board Member at Validity Sensors where he successfully raised multiple rounds of funding and established strategies to commercialize Finger Print Reader technology. At Validity Sensors, Mr. Shaikh was actively involved in all aspects of Engineering, Marketing, Sales and Operations. He has also held positions as Vice President (VP) and General Manager at Broadcom Corporation, CEO at Zeevo (acquired by Broadcom), Sr. VP of Operations at Silicon Image and management positions at Micro Linear, which both had very successful IPOs. Prior to Silicon Image, Mr. Shaikh was Director of Operations at Trident Microsystems which enjoyed significant growth in share holder value and revenue during his tenure. Mr. Shaikh began his career at National Semiconductor where he held management positions in Operations and Product Marketing from 1983 to 1990. Mr. Shaikh holds an MS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, New Jersey, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
Jing Liao was appointed Vice President, Global Human Resources in December, 2009. Prior to this position, she led the Global Total Rewards function at Atmel. Prior to joining Atmel, Ms. Liao served as Vice President of Global Human Resources for Avanex Corporation, where she was responsible for architecting and establishing an HR department tasked to support the restructuring and growth plan of the company. Previously Ms. Liao held HR leadership positions at Hyperion, JDS Uniphase and Adaptec. Ms. Liao received an M.A. degree in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Business and a B.S. Degree in Chemistry from Peking University, China.
