Boards, Chips and Packaging:
Designing to Maximize Results

Speaker Biographies

Jim Feldhan, President, Semico Research Corp.

Jim founded Semico Research in 1994 and developed Semico’s research methodology, philosophy and core values.  He has an MS in Marketing from the UofA focusing on quantitative statistics and market research.  He uses that background and his industry experience to develop the macroeconomic forecasts that underlie Semico’s outlook for worldwide semiconductor sales, historically the most accurate forecasts in the industry. He developed the IPI, a 12-month leading indicator for semiconductor sales. Jim also leads Semico’s custom consulting practice.

Michael Gay, Director of Strategic Accounts, Isola

Michael J. Gay is the Director of Strategic Accounts for Isola. Michael has been involved in printed circuit board manufacturing for more than 20 years with roles in new product introduction, process development, material characterizations and technical support. Michael is active in numerous printed circuit industry organizations including the High Density Packaging Users Group (HDPIG) and the IPC Association Connecting Electronics Industries, where he currently provides technical expertise to industry critical committees and projects. Michael was a key contributor to IPC-1601: Printed Board Handling and Storage Guidelines and co-authored, the article, “Making Sense of Laminate Dielectric Properties.” Michael received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Masters of Business Administration from Portland State University. 
 
Jason Marsh, Vice President of Product Management, Insulectro

Jason Marsh is Vice President of Product Management at Insulectro.  Prior to coming to Insulectro he spent over a decade in a global operations role at Kyocera living five years in China starting up and running factories.  With a background in Robotics and Automation, he has experience across the globe from Japan, India, Germany, Mexico, China and Malaysia.  He has served on advisory boards and consulted for companies in a wide range of industries from Artificial Intelligence to Outdoor Equipment to Solar Power to Agriculture.  He is passionate about seeing manufacturing companies thrive and is keenly interested in solving some of the physics challenges that next generation electronics systems are facing.

Lee Ritchey, Founder & President, Speeding Edge
Lee is considered to be one of the industry´s premier authorities on high-speed PCB and system design. He conducts on-site private training courses for high technology companies as well as at industry trade shows and technical conferences. He also provides consulting services for high-end networking products. His experience range crosses a broad technology spectrum including high-end super computers, disc drives, routers, switches and hubs. Lee holds a B.S.E.E. degree from California State University, Sacramento where he graduated as outstanding senior. In 1998, he was profiled by EE Times, as "the high-speed design ratchet man". In 2004, Ritchey began contributing a regular column, "PCB Perspectives," to EE Times.

Scott McMorrow, R&D Consultant, Teraspeed Consulting—A Division of Samtec

Mr. McMorrow is an experienced technologist with over 25 years of broad background in complex system design, interconnect and Signal Integrity engineering, modeling and measurement methodology, engineering team building and professional training. Mr. McMorrow has a consistent history of delivering and managing technical consultation that enables clients to manufacture systems with state-of-the-art performance, enhanced design margins, lower cost, and reduced risk. Through his work as an SI consultant, Scott has performed research on the analysis of large memory and backplane signaling systems, using large data set statistical integrity analysis techniques to determine worst-case performance compared to defined limits. Mr. McMorrow is an expert in high-performance design and Signal Integrity engineering, and has been a consultant and trainer to engineering organizations world-wide.

Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III

Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III has been dedicated to the pursuit of safety for his entire adult life. While he is best known for serving as Captain during what has been called the “Miracle on the Hudson,” Sullenberger is an aviation safety expert and accident investigator, serves as the CBS News Aviation and Safety Expert, and is the founder and chief executive officer of Safety Reliability Methods, Inc., a company dedicated to management, safety, performance and reliability consulting.
Born and raised in Denison, Texas, Sullenberger pursued his childhood love of aviation at the United States Air Force Academy. In his graduation year at the academy, he received the Outstanding Cadet in Airmanship Award. In addition to his bachelor’s degree in psychology, he also has two master's degrees, one in industrial psychology from Purdue University and one in public administration from the University of Northern Colorado. He also has an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Purdue University.
Upon graduation from the Academy, Sullenberger served as a fighter pilot for the United States Air Force from 1975 to 1980. He advanced to become a flight leader and a training officer, attaining the rank of captain. During his active duty, he was stationed in North America and Europe. After serving in the Air Force, Sullenberger became an airline pilot with Pacific Southwest Airlines, later acquired by US Airways, until his retirement in March 2010.
Prior to gaining worldwide attention, Sullenberger was an active and ardent safety advocate throughout his four-decadelong career. He was selected to perform accident investigation duties for the United States Air Force, and served as an Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) representative during a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. Additionally, Sullenberger served as a Local Air Safety Chairman for ALPA, and was a member of one of their national technical committees, where he contributed to the creation of a Federal Aviation  Administration Advisory Circular. He was also instrumental in developing and implementing the Crew Resource Management course used by US Airways, and he has taught the course to hundreds of other airline crewmembers.
After logging more than 20,000 hours of flight time Sullenberger became internationally renowned on January 15, 2009 when he and his crew safely guided US Airways Flight 1549 to an emergency water landing in New York City’s frigid Hudson River. The Airbus A320’s two engines had lost thrust following a bird strike. Sullenberger and his crew received international acclaim for their actions that day, including the passage of a Congressional resolution recognizing their bravery. Sullenberger was ranked second in TIME's "Top 100 Most Influential Heroes and Icons of 2009” and was awarded the French Legion of Honour.
From 2009 to 2013, Sullenberger served as co-chairman of EAA Young Eagles—a program that inspires and educates youth about aviation. He is The New York Times best-selling author of Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters and also wrote Making a Difference: Stories of Vision and Courage from America's Leaders. He is an international lecturer and keynote speaker at educational institutions, corporations and non-profit organizations about the importance of aviation and patient safety, crisis management, life-long preparation, leadership and living a life of integrity. In collaboration with DuPont Sustainable Solutions, Sullenberger developed and was featured in a multi-award winning video training program, Miracle on the Hudson: Prepare for Safety, which helps employees increase their commitment to safety and transform their organizations’ safety culture. These programs and endeavors are ideally suited to put Sullenberger’s expertise in safety and knowledge of high performance systems’ improvement, to work saving lives, saving money and bringing value to communities.
Sullenberger is married to Lorrie Sullenberger, a community, social, and women’s wellness advocate. She serves as an Advisory Board Member for Big Brothers Big Sisters Bay Area, and is a 26-year volunteer with Guide Dogs for the Blind.
The couple and their two daughters reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Heidi Barnes, Senior Application Engineer, Keysight Technologies

Heidi Barnes is a Senior Application Engineer for High Speed Digital applications in the EEsof EDA Group of Keysight Technologies, a spin-off of Agilent Technologies.  Past experience includes over 6 years in signal integrity for ATE PCB loadboards with Verigy, and 6 years in RF/Microwave multi-layer laminate microcircuit packaging for Agilent Technologies.  She rejoined Agilent Technologies in 2012, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.  

Geoffrey Hazelett, Product Specialist, Polar Instruments

Geoffrey is a Product Specialist at Polar Instruments, Inc. Having recently joined the company, Geoffrey is utilizing his background and previous mixed engineering and business experience. An engaging speaker, he has jumped into the PCB industry with enthusiasm to bring insight into the challenges designers and fabricators share with signal integrity.  Outside of Polar Geoffrey has spent time in Asia managing programs at two different top universities and currently resides in Beaverton, Oregon.

Nathapong Suthiwongsunthorn, Ph.D., Vice President, Research & Development, UTAC

Nathapong, Ph.D., joined UTAC in September 2009 with more than 18 years of proven experience in the semiconductor industry. His expertise is in the area of wafer level as well as advanced packaging where he holds more than 40 International patents and publications. Prior to joining UTAC, Nathapong had held several key leadership positions in research and development at Schott, STATS ChipPAC and Infineon. Nathapong graduated from Oxford Brookes University, England with Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering.

Tom Whipple, Product Engineering Architect, Cadence

Tom Whipple graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Brigham Young University and a Master of Science in ECE from the University of Arizona.  He designed PC chip-sets at VLSI Technology Inc. for four years, and has been at Cadence Design Systems for twenty-two years.  The past eleven years he has worked as a Product Engineering Architect on chip-package-board co-design solutions.  

Nathaniel Unger, Director of Package Design, Altera

Nate Unger serves as the Director of Package Design at Altera Corp where he manages the challenges to meet the various FPGA system level requirements. Prior to joining Altera, Nate worked at TI managing the High Speed Interface Applications team. Through Nate’s 20-year career, he has developed high speed design skills optimizing system level challenges. Nate holds a BSEE degree from Va Tech.

Robert L. Sankman, Intel Fellow, Technology and Manufacturing Group
Director, Package Pathfinding, Assembly Test Technology Development

Bob Sankman is an Intel Fellow and director of package pathfinding in the Assembly Test Technology Development group at Intel Corporation. He is responsible for directing the definition of packaging and assembly activities for Intel's advanced logic products.
Before assuming his current role, Sankman served as the pathfinding and planning manager for the Assembly Test Technology Development group, where he was responsible for defining packaging technology to support all Intel logic processes. Earlier in his Intel career, Sankman was the group's design and core competency manager, a position in which he designed product packages and provided modeling support for assembly technology development. Sankman joined Intel in 1980 as a process engineer during the startup of Intel's Fab 6 facility in Chandler, Ariz.
Sankman holds 29 patents in the field of electronic packaging and has been honored with three Intel Achievement Awards - two in the area of semiconductor fabrication and one in semiconductor packaging. He has also contributed his expertise to numerous papers.
Sankman earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1980.

Daniel N. de Araujo, Principal Engineer - Nimbic, Mentor Graphics

Daniel has 18 years of experience in board and chip design, simulation, and validation in high-end servers and high-volume commercial desktops.  Originally from Brazil, he obtained a B.S. in electrical engineering at Michigan State University.  Daniel joined IBM’s Personal Systems Division in 1997 in Research Triangle Park, NC and pursued a Masters in Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University from 1998 to end of 2000.
In 2001, Daniel moved to Austin, TX and worked as a Senior Engineer and Team Lead in the IBM System X Electrical Interconnect and Packaging Design group until 2006.  Then he joined Ansoft Corporation as an application engineer in the areas of High Frequency / Signal & Power Integrity.  He joined Physware in 2010 as Director of Applications; the company name changed to Nimbic in June 2011 and was acquired by Mentor Graphics in 2014, where he is now a Principal Engineer.
Daniel has 14 patents issued, 11 filed, nine patent disclosure publications and 67 peer-reviewed publications in international IEEE conference proceedings, transactions, journals, and books.  His interests include woodworking, photography, long distance/trail running, and reading.

Margaret Schmitt, Electronics Business Development Director, ANSYS

Margaret Schmitt is an Electronics Business Development Director at ANSYS, Inc.  She currently drives ANSYS WW Chip-Package-System initiatives, providing electrical, thermal, and mechanical solutions in a comprehensive design flow for modern electronic designs. She has 15 years of experience in IC and electronic systems design and power integrity sign-off. She specializes in the areas of low-power and power/thermal management, and has prior experience in chip design from Sun Microsystems. She has authored/co-authored several papers on power and signal integrity as well as thermal management of electronic systems. Ms. Schmitt holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. 

Brian Fuller, Editor in Chief, ARM

Brian Fuller was a journalist for 30 years before moving into the corporate world to build content-creation and marketing programs in the semiconductor and EDA industry.
He spent two years as editor-in-chief at Cadence Design Systems, where he blogged on electronics topics and managed the content-creation process and team. Currently he is editor-in-chief at ARM where he works with product, segment and campaigns marketing teams to building content programs for a variety of technical audiences.
Before this current gig, he spent the better part of 22 years in electronics publishing, most of that with the industry-leading publication EE Times, where he started as business editor in 1992 and eventually became editor-in-chief and publisher. During that time, he helped guide EE Times to become the news and information source for the electronics industry and transformed the property from a strictly print edition into an industry multimedia leader in the online world.
He also helped conceive of and was the key driver and content creator on the groundbreaking 2011-12 project, Drive for Innovation, in which he and a videographer drove a Chevy Volt around the United States for a year, interviewing engineers.
He was born and raised in San Francisco and received his bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Mike Noonen, CEO (interim), Ambiq Micro

Mike Noonen is the interim CEO of Ambiq Micro, the sub-threshold logic leader based in Austin, Texas. He is also a board director for Adapteva, Kilopass and Quora Semiconductor.
He was co-founder of Silicon Catalyst, the semiconductor solution start-up incubator based in Silicon Valley. Silicon Catalyst recently won the EE Times/EDN “Start-up of the Year” Ace Award.
Noonen was Executive Vice President, Global Products, Design, Sales, & Marketing at GlobalFoundries. He also served on the Global Semiconductor Alliance Board of Directors and was Chairman of the Board of Socle, a design services company acquired by Foxconn. 
Noonen has held executive roles at NXP Semiconductors, National Semiconductor, Cisco Systems and 8x8. He started his career at NCR Microelectronics as an FAE.  He has a BSEE from Colorado State University and in 2012 was named the College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni. He holds multiple patents in the areas of Internet telephony and video communications.