San Jose, CA—Tessera Technologies announced changes to its board of directors and the search for a new chief executive officer to replace Robert A. Young. The reconstituted board will comprise experienced and independent directors who will guide the company through the next phase of its strategic plan, both in its Intellectual Property unit and DigitalOptics business, which develops imaging technologies for smartphones.
Richard S. Hill was appointed chairman of the board, effective immediately, replacing Robert J. Boehlke, who will remain on the board until the upcoming annual meeting of stockholders on May 23, 2013. Also effective immediately, three new independent directors will join the board: John Chenault, John H. F. Miner and Christopher A. Seams.
Tessera plans to nominate a slate of six independent directors at the upcoming annual meeting of stockholders, including the three new directors and existing directors Richard S. Hill, David C. Nagel and Timothy J. Stultz.
“We continue to strengthen the board, and each of our directors—both current and new—is fully committed to driving stockholder value at the company,” said Hill. “The three new directors we are nominating for the board are all accomplished business leaders, and we expect them to provide immediate and substantial benefits to the Company.
“Bob Boehlke and Bob Young have both made significant contributions in their years of service to the company,” added Hill. “We would like to thank them for all that they have done for the Company.”
Biographies of the six nominees for the board follow.
John Chenault held increasingly senior roles at Novellus Systems, a semiconductor company, prior to his retirement in 2005, most recently as chief financial officer. Previously, he served as vice president of Corporate Development; vice president of Operation and Administration; executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Service; and executive vice president of Business Operations. Chenault has been a director of Ultra Clean since June 2009.
John H. F. Miner currently serves as a managing director of Pivotal Investments. Previously, he had a 20-year-plus career at Intel, culminating as copresident of Intel Capital. He also served in a general management capacity overseeing major Intel product divisions, including the Enterprise Server and Communications Products and New Products Groups, and Intel’s desktop motherboard and PC building-blocks business. Miner serves as a director of Pacific Light Technologies Corp., Tuusso and STI. He is also a trustee for the Providence St. Vincent Medical Foundation and a board advisor of SeQuential-Pacific Biodiesel LLC.
Christopher A. Seams has been an executive vice president at Cypress Semiconductor Corporation since 2000, where he is responsible for Sales and Marketing. In addition, his assignments have included technical and operational management in manufacturing, development, and operations. Prior to joining Cypress, he worked in process development for Advanced Micro Devices and Philips Research Laboratories.
Richard S. Hill, who joined the board in August 2012, served as CEO of Novellus Systems from 1993, as well as the chairman from 1996, until its acquisition for more than $3 billion by Lam Research Corporation in June 2012. Before that, Hill spent 12 years with Tektronix, Inc., and was president of the Tektronix Development Company, vice president of the Test & Measurement Group and president of Tektronix Components Corporation. He also held engineering-management positions at General Electric, Motorola and Hughes Aircraft Company. Hill is the immediate past chair and a current executive committee member of the University of Illinois Foundation, a member of the board of visitors for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a member of the board of directors of Arrow Electronics, LSI Corporation and Cabot Microelectronics Corporation.
David C. Nagel, Ph.D., who joined the board in 2005, was most recently president and CEO of PalmSource, a provider of operating system software platforms for smart mobile devices. Prior to PalmSource, Nagel was chief technology officer at AT&T and president of AT&T Labs. He previously served as senior vice president at Apple Computer, where he led Worldwide R&D for all Macintosh products after heading up Advanced Technology. Before Apple, Nagel had a long career at NASA’s Ames Research Center as head of human factors research. He has served on a number of national and international advisory committees, including five years on President Clinton’s first President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). He has also served on the boards of Palm, Inc., ArcSoft, Inc., Epocrates, Nuance, Leapfrog Technologies, and Openwave Systems (now Unwired Planet). He currently serves on the boards of Vonage Holdings and Align Technology, in addition to Tessera Technologies.
Timothy J. Stultz, Ph.D., who joined Tessera's board in August 2012, is CEO, president and a director of Nanometrics Inc., which he joined in 2007. Previously, Dr. Stultz served as president, CEO and director of Imago Scientific Instruments, and as vice president and general manager of Veeco Instruments Metrology Group, where he was instrumental in bringing to market the world’s first fully automated atomic force microscope. He was also the founder of Peak Systems, a pioneering company in the area of rapid thermal processing for semiconductor devices. Prior to founding Peak, Dr. Stultz spent nine years at Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratories, where he participated in and led a variety of research programs in the development of advanced solid state materials. tessera.com
