Bing Yeh, one of our co‑founders, has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer and has been a member of our Board of Directors since our inception in 1989.  In April 2004, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors.  Prior to that, Mr. Yeh served as a senior research and development manager of Xicor, Inc., a nonvolatile memory semiconductor company.  From 1981 to 1984, Mr. Yeh held program manager and other positions at Honeywell Inc.  From 1979 to 1981, Mr. Yeh was a senior development engineer of EEPROM technology of Intel Corporation.  He was a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Physics and earned an Engineer degree from Stanford University.  Mr. Yeh holds a M.S. and a B.S. in Physics from National Taiwan University.

Yaw Wen Hu, Ph.D., joined us in July 1993 as Vice President, Technology Development.  In August 1999, he became Vice President, Operations and Process Development.  In January 2000, he was promoted to Senior Vice President, Operations and Process Development.  In April 2004, he was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.  Dr. Hu has been a member of our Board of Directors since September 1995.  From 1990 to 1993, Dr. Hu served as deputy general manager of technology development of Vitelic Taiwan Corporation.  From 1988 to 1990, he served as FAB engineering manager of Integrated Device Technology, Inc.  From 1985 to 1988, he was the director of technology development at Vitelic Corporation.  From 1978 to 1985, he worked as a senior staff engineer in Intel Corporation’s Technology Development Group.  Dr. Hu holds a B.S. in Physics from National Taiwan University and a M.S. in Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University.

Tsuyoshi Taira has been a member of our Board of Directors since July 1993.  Since 1996, Mr. Taira has served as Chief Executive Officer of Tazan International Inc., a venture capital and management consultancy firm.  From 1986 to 1993, he was President of Sanyo Semiconductor Corporation.  From 1993 to 1996, Mr. Taira served as Chairman of Sanyo Semiconductor Corporation.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors of  several private companies.  Mr. Taira received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Newport Asia Pacific University and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tokyo Metropolitan University.

Yasushi Chikagami has been a member of our Board of Directors since September 1995.  In 1979, he co-founded GVC Corporation in Taiwan, a modem and wireless mobile phone manufacturer, which was acquired by Lite-On IT Corporation in 1991.  Mr. Chikagami currently serves on the Board of Directors of several technology companies.  He has been Chairman of Arise Corporation, operating in Taiwan, since March 1992.  Mr. Chikagami founded and has served as Chairman of Arise, Inc., operating in Japan, since 1999.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of Everlight Chemical Industrial Corporation and Trident Microsystems, Inc as well as several private companies.  Mr. Chikagami holds a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from National Taiwan University and a M.S. in Engineering from University of Tokyo.

Ronald Chwang, Ph.D., has been a member of our Board of Directors since June 1997.  Since 1997, Dr. Chwang has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iD Ventures America, a venture capital management company (formerly known as Acer Technology Ventures) under the iD SoftCapital Group.  Dr. Chwang also serves on the Board of Directors of ATI Technologies, Inc, iRobot, and BenQ Corporation.  From 1986 to 1997, Dr. Chwang was with various Acer entities, serving in executive positions leading business units engaged in ASIC products, computer peripherals, and enterprise server system.  From 1992 to 1997, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Acer America Corporation.  Before joining the Acer entities, Dr. Chwang worked in development and management positions at Intel and Bell Northern Research in Ottawa, Canada.  Dr. Chwang holds a B.Eng. (with honors) in Electrical Engineering from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Terry Nickerson has been a member of our Board of Directors since April 2005.  From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Nickerson served as the Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of ATI Technologies, Inc., a semiconductor manufacturer.  From 1988 to 1990, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Northern Telecom Ltd.  While with Northern Telecom, he was also President of Northern Telecom Electronics, a subsidiary responsible for Northern Telecom’s ASIC and Printed Circuit Board manufacturing.  Mr. Nickerson spent over 18 years at IBM primarily in Finance and Planning roles.  He was also General Manager of the IBM plant in Don Mills, Ontario, which later became Celestica Inc.  While with both IBM and Northern Telecom, he served on international assignments covering Asia, Europe, and Latin America.  Mr. Nickerson is also a director of Miranda Technologies and Quake Technologies.  Mr. Nickerson has a B.Sc. in Metallurgy Engineering from Queen’s University and a M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Edward Y.W. Yang has been a member of our Board of Directors since October 2007. Mr. Yang retired in 2005 after a 25-year career with Hewlett-Packard Company in the Silicon Valley. His last assignment at HP was vice president and chief technology officer for the Personal Systems Group in the Corporate Office of Strategy and Technology. Prior to that, he was vice president and chief technical officer of Hewlett-Packard’s Computing Systems business, vice president and chief technical officer of Hewlett-Packard’s Personal System Group and a general manager in Hewlett-Packard’s Telecom System business unit. He also served as the co-leader of the integration team for the Enterprise Systems Group during the Hewlett-Packard and Compaq merger. Prior to joining Hewlett-Packard in 1980, Mr. Yang held various positions at Bell Northern Research and General Automation. Mr. Yang holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the National Cheng-Kung University (Taiwan) and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University.