GOLETA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Transphorm, Inc. (Nasdaq: TGAN)—a pioneer in and a global supplier of high reliability, high performance gallium nitride (GaN) power conversion products—announced today the appointment of six company leaders. The roles are being filled by company veterans as well as newly hired experts, strategically building out Transphorm’s executive bench. The collective sales, operations, engineering, and product marketing skillsets brought by these individuals will contribute to Transphorm’s business growth and customer support strategies as the company responds to a rapidly rising demand for high voltage GaN power semiconductors across industries.
“The GaN power semiconductor field is an exciting one enabling significant efficiency savings with compact, cost-effective power converters and inverters. This challenges engineers and operational leaders alike to think beyond the status quo. The team we have assembled to date is comprised of passionate individuals who understand our role in the power electronics industry and deeply value what Transphorm offers customers and ecosystem partners. We are proud to have this strong team in place to lead the next phase of growth and innovation as we continue to deliver one of the highest performing, widest range of power GaN devices available today,” said Primit Parikh, President and COO, Transphorm.
Appointments
Philip Zuk, appointed to Senior Vice President, Business Development and Marketing, has spent nearly seven years supporting Transphorm in various capacities. He has been instrumental in developing relationships with marquis customers and technical partners; defining products and solutions; and establishing the company’s brand image while evangelizing its technology. That knowledge and experience led to Philip playing a key supporting role in taking Transphorm public. He draws on nearly three decades of engineering experience anchored primarily in power semiconductors, having previously held engineering and marketing roles at Vishay (Siliconix), Microsemi PPG, Fairchild Semiconductor, and other major power technology companies.
Sal Barlett recently joined Transphorm as Senior Vice President, Operations. For nearly three decades, Sal worked for onsemi where he most recently led the global capacity, capital planning, and strategy teams. His leadership there enabled the company to more than double its multi-billion-dollar annual revenue. Additionally, among other achievements, he acted as operations leader for various factory acquisitions and divestitures transacted during his tenure. His responsibilities called for consistent exploration and deep analysis of operational needs followed by the development and implementation of processes and supply solutions fundamental to corporate growth.
Likun Shen, a 15-year Transphorm veteran, has been appointed to Vice President of Engineering. He has previously served in a device and product engineering leadership capacity as well as a Senior Member of Technical staff. His work has contributed heavily to the design, fabrication, characterization, and qualification of Transphorm’s GaN platform and derivative products. Notably, he led an initiative responsible for improving manufacturing yields while supporting reliability improvement efforts among others. Early in his career, Likun earned his Ph.D. on GaN devices and held the role of Assistant Project Scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) working directly with Transphorm’s co-founder and CTO Umesh Mishra.
Tushar Dhayagude, assumes an expanded role as Vice President of Worldwide Sales having joined 2021 as the Vice President of Field Applications and Technical Sales. He has become an integral member of the company’s leadership team helping strengthen Transphorm’s foothold in the adapter and select high power markets while aiding solutions partnership development. He brings to this role more than 25 years’ experience in sales, marketing, and engineering roles—with more than 18 years of that experience specific to power and semiconductor technologies. Prior to Transphorm, Tushar was Founder and CEO of GV Semiconductor Inc., a company that produced GaN-on-Silicon power HEMTs, controllers, and power systems.
Vipin Bothra joins Transphorm as the company’s Vice President of Sales, North America and Europe. He brings to this role 25 years of experience gained while at global semiconductor manufacturer ST Microelectronics. He most recently held the position of Industrial Sales Director, where he was responsible for defining and executing go-to-market strategies that ultimately yielded a 400 percent business unit growth across sectors from Aerospace and Energy to Automation and Healthcare. These strategies drew on a diversified set of disciplines from partnership ideation and channel programming to cross-regional/cross-departmental collaboration on marketing campaign development and execution.
Peter Cheng joins Transphorm as the company’s Vice President of Product Marketing and Applications. His experience spans managerial roles in design engineering and product marketing, culminating in his most recent position as Senior Director, Power IC Product Line at Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Inc. Overseeing five product groups, he was instrumental in defining new product requirements and application criteria along with developing viable product roadmaps. He brings to this role a multi-disciplined background—design engineering, application engineering, product engineering, marketing, and business development—in the power semiconductor industry.
About Transphorm
Transphorm, Inc., a global leader in the GaN revolution, designs and manufactures high performance and high reliability GaN semiconductors for high voltage power conversion applications. Having one of the largest Power GaN IP portfolios of more than 1,000 owned or licensed patents, Transphorm produces the industry’s first JEDEC and AEC-Q101 qualified high voltage GaN semiconductor devices. The Company’s vertically integrated device business model allows for innovation at every development stage: design, fabrication, device, and application support. Transphorm’s innovations are moving power electronics beyond the limitations of silicon to achieve over 99% efficiency, 40% more power density and 20% lower system cost. Transphorm is headquartered in Goleta, California and has manufacturing operations in Goleta and Aizu, Japan. For more information, please visit www.transphormusa.com. Follow us on Twitter @transphormusa and WeChat @ Transphorm_GaN.
