People Update

08/01/1998

Two top executives at KLA-Tencor, San Jose, CA, have swapped jobs. KLA founder Ken Levy, who has been chairman, will assume the CEO title, while CEO Jon Tompkins, who had been Tencor`s top manager, will be chairman. The move is said to reflect the way their responsibilities have evolved since last year`s merger of the two companies.

Vanguard Automation, Tucson, AZ, the semiconductor equipment unit of Robotic Vision Systems Inc., has named Michel Epsztein president. Epsztein comes to Vanguard from the ATE Division of Schlumberger, where he was VP and GM of test systems.

Makoto Kouzuma, president and CEO of SpeedFam International Inc., Chandler, AZ, will also become president of SpeedFam Corp. He succeeds Christopher E. Augur, who has left the position. In the Semiconductor Group, Barrie VanDevender has been named product marketing manager for the Capella post-CMP cleaning tool. He joined the company in 1996.

Imtec Acculine Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has promoted Timothy D. Welch to president and COO. He joined the company in 1995 as VP of operations.

FEI Co., Hillsboro, OR, has appointed Vah? Sarkissian president, CEO, and member of the board of directors. He has more than 30 years of high technology management experience and most recently served in top management positions at several semiconductor and information systems companies. Sarkissian replaces Bill Whitward, who has retired.

Trikon Technologies, Newport, Wales, UK, has named Tom McKee CEO and member of the board of directors. Earlier this year, McKee left IPEC, where he was president and COO. Chris Dobson will remain as Trikon`s chairman of the board.

PRI Automation Inc., Billerica, MA, has appointed Ken Thompson to its board of directors. He recently retired as VP of technology and manufacturing engineering at Intel Corp.

Instruments S.A. Inc., Edison, NJ, has appointed Kevin Liddane director of the Thin Film Group. He was formerly OEM business manager for OptoSigma Corp.

The Semiconductor Equipment Group of Watkins-Johnson Co., Scotts Valley, CA, has promoted Stephen Lanza to vice president of global business operations. Lanza was most recently managing director of Watkins-Johnson International`s European operations in Linlithgow, Scotland. John Villadsen has been named VP of customer service and manufacturing. Villadsen was director of customer service.

Crysteco, Wilmington, OH, has appointed Don Keenan assistant VP of epitaxial products manufacturing. He was director of special projects and manager of polishing operations at the company. Mark Blythe has been named manager of technology and engineering for epitaxial products manufacturing. He directed the operation`s startup during its design, construction, and customer qualification phases.

The Thermco Division of Silicon Valley Group Inc., San Jose, CA, has appointed Aubrey Helms to the position of vice president of process technology. He was director of process technology. Robert Herring has assumed Helms` previous position. Herring was process manager for the division.

OnTrak Systems Inc., San Jose, CA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lam Research Corp., has appointed Jim Kuhl VP of operations. Prior to joining OnTrak, he was VP of operations at Adept Technology.

Veriflo Corp., Richmond, CA, and SenSym have appointed George Fragakis general sales manager for the Transducer Division of their joint venture organization. He is a five-year veteran of Veriflo`s Semiconductor/High-purity Division sales organization.

Ashland Chemical Co., Dublin OH, has named Charles W. Cook, Jr. VP and GM of its Electronic Chemicals Division. Cook was corporate vice president of MEMC Electronic Materials Inc., and chairman and CEO of MEMC Pasadena Inc. Peter G. Gooden has been appointed plant manager for the division`s Dallas, TX, plant. Gooden previously served as plant manager in Ashland`s Drew Industrial Division.

Kyocera America Inc., San Diego, CA, has named Doug Allday VP of KMX operations. Allday has been with Kyocera for 20 years, most recently as KMX operations control manager.

Jones-Hamilton Co., Newark, CA, Semiconductor Chemical Division, has named Randy McClure quality manager. McClure previously held positions in materials management and logistics at Olin Microelectronic Materials.

Electroglas Inc., Santa Clara, CA, has appointed Jan Jensen director of marketing communications. Before joining Electroglas, Jensen was marketing communications manager for GaSonics International.

Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc., Willow Grove, PA, has named Mark J. Sullivan director of marketing communications. He was senior manager of marketing communications for the Agfa Division of the Bayer Corp.

International SEMATECH, Austin, TX, has appointed George Casey associate director of lithography. He was previously associate director of materials and bulk processes.

Greene, Tweed & Co., Kulpsville, PA, has named William D. Luzier technical/commercial director of its Semiconductor Division. He joined the company in 1996, after more than 18 years of technical, sales, and management experience at ICI.

ATMI Inc., Danbury, CT, has named John N. Gregg VP of engineering for its ADCS business. He joined ADCS in 1990, and has held positions in domestic and international sales, applications engineering, and engineering quality control. Robert A. Welch has been appointed VP of marketing. Before joining ADCS, he was president of the US subsidiary of K.C. Tech Co. Ltd., Seoul, South Korea. Craig A. Esser has been named new products service manager. Esser held a variety of positions with ADCS in engineering and field service prior to this appointment. Hani Badawi has been named director of operations for the III-V Division at Epitronics, an epitaxy business of ATMI. He was most recently employed in implementing quality systems at a leading GaAs IC manufacturer.

MACROTRON Systems, Munich, Germany, has appointed Christophe Cr?bier telephone support and on-site service person for the automatic/semiautomatic wafer mounters and laminators/delaminators of the Japanese manufacturer Nitto Denko. Before joining the company, he was employed at THOMSON.Aseco Corp., Marlborough, MA, has appointed Phillip Villari VP of manufacturing operations. Before joining the company, he was director and GM of the semiconductor capital equipment business unit of Electro Scientific Industries.

Photronics Inc., Milpitas, CA, has named John Burnette senior VP of worldwide sales and marketing. Burnette joins the company from Philips Electronics, where he was VP of sales and operations in the passive components division.

Resonetics Inc., Nashua, NH, has named Bo Gu director of marketing. He was senior applications manager at Lumonics Corp., Kanata, Canada.

YieldUP International Corp., Mountain View, CA, has appointed Justin K. Wang director of technical marketing. Before joining the company, he held various positions in sales and product marketing at Lam Research Corp.

Schneeberger Inc., Bedford, MA, has named Roy A Corbeil applications engineering manager. Corbeil joined the company in 1991 as senior applications engineer.

AIXTRON AG, Aachen, Germany, has appointed Diethard Marx a product manager for Japan. Previously, he worked with Mitsubishi, where he researched the GaN blue laser. Yasushi Yanagida has been named to the sales and service team at the company`s partner, Moritani & Co. Ltd. He has worked in the semiconductor industry for many years.

Speedline Technologies Inc., Franklin, MA, has named Rick Berger executive VP and COO. He comes to Speedline from TAM Ceramics Inc., where he served as president of the Component Products Sector.

Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Lehigh Valley, PA, has named Leo J. Daley VP of finance and treasurer. He joined the company in 1979, and was most recently VP and treasurer. He succeeds Arnold H. Kaplan, senior VP of finance, who is retiring.

AlliedSignal Electronic Materials, a strategic business unit of AlliedSignal Inc., Los Gatos, CA, has named two VPs to its Advanced Microelectronic Materials (AMM) enterprise. Steve Kirtley has been appointed VP of technology. He was formerly VP and GM of AMM. Jack D. Bolick has assumed this position. He was president of Johnson Matthey Electronics` Wafer Fabrication Materials Group.

Intevac, Santa Clara, CA, has named Robert Weiss GM of its Flat Panel Display Equipment Division. He has been with Intevac since its inception in 1991.

Matrix Integrated Systems Inc., Richmond, CA, has appointed Edward Lee manager of software engineering. He joined Matrix in 1997 from BDM International, where he was a site manager in automation software development. John Voltz has been named Eastern regional sales manager. He has 17 years of experience in a variety of sales and product marketing positions for SVG, Plasma & Materials Technology, and Thermawave. Bob LeMaster has been appointed Central region sales manager. He has 25 years of experience in various fab positions for such companies as Motorola, Branson/IPC, Plasma Therm, and Millipore Electronics. Pat Tang has been named director of Pacific Rim sales. He was most recently director of Southeast Asia sales at Semitool Inc.

Extraction Systems Inc., Franklin, MA, has named Bob Kerwin product sales manager. He has more than 17 years of experience in photolithography and semiconductor processing, most recently serving as applications manager at Integration Solutions Inc.

Silicon Valley Group Inc. (SVG), San Jose, CA, has named John Shamaly VP of corporate marketing. He was VP of technology and customer support in the Lithography Division. The Lithography Division has appointed Daniel Fleming to Shamaly`s former position. He was most recently VP of engineering. Fleming is succeeded in this role by Daniel Cote, who was previously manager of SVG`s Micrascan III development program.

Balzers Thin Films Inc., Golden, CO, has appointed Jerry Gromala senior sales engineer. He was formerly sales and marketing manager for Melles Griot Electro-Optics Division.

Alfa, a European sister company of US-based Alfa Aesar, Ward Hill, MA, a Johnson Matthey company, has named Justin Snoxall GM. He joined Johnson Matthey in 1997.

Tokyo Electron America Inc., Austin, TX, has appointed Don Burkman business unit manager for cleaning systems products. He has nearly 30 years of experience in wet processing and more than 15 years of experience in executive management, most recently as VP of business development at SCP Global Technologies.

Manuela Boin has won second prize in the business plan competition "StartUp" in Wuerttemberg, Germany. The plan, entitled "Development and Marketing of Software Products for the International Semiconductor Industry," describes the planned setup of a company offering products and service to equipment vendors, IC manufacturers, and research institutes.

Planar Display Solutions, Beaverton, OR, has named Richard Prins GM. Most recently, Prins was founder and CEO of MicroPure.

ENI, Rochester, NY, a division of Astec America Inc., has named Dan Barnes director of finance. He was previously employed at Guardian Industries.George Altimonda has been appointed VP of human resources. Altimonda was director of compensation and benefits at the West Group.

SCP Global Technologies, Boise, ID, has expanded its management staff. Laurel Smith has been promoted to product marketing manager. She has been with SCP since 1994 as Northwest regional sales manager. Howard Savage has been named 300-mm product manager. He was previously territory sales manager for FSI International Inc. Paul W. Dryer has been appointed applications engineer. He has worked for such companies as Motorola Inc. and Micron Technology Inc. Paul Sadlek has been promoted to wet bench product manager. He has been with SCP more than six years in the software engineering group. Robert Glass has been named director of worldwide sales. He was formerly VP of sales for BOC/Systems Chemistry Inc.

DSM Engineering Plastic Products Inc., Reading, PA, has named Vincent Catalano business development engineer for the Western region of the US. He joined DSM in 1996 as a territory sales representative.

Exsil Inc., San Jose, CA, has named Steven M. Witthoeft VP of sales and marketing. Before joining Exsil, Witthoeft was business director at Customtec.

Camstar Systems Inc., Campbell, CA, has appointed Bob Coo CFO. He was most recently director and Audit Committee chairman of Hawaiian Airlines.

Asymtek, Carlsbad, CA, has named Mac Larsen VP of sales. After 11 years at Liquid Control Corp., he joined Asymtek in 1994 as North American sales manager.

Lisa Collins Fertsch has been appointed Northwest regional manager. Prior to joining Asymtek, she was director of sales and marketing at Aeronex.

Cerprobe Corp., Gilbert, AZ, has named Karen Lynch director of marketing. Before joining Cerprobe, she was director of marketing for the PC Micro Division at SGS-Thomson Microelectronics.

Rudolph Technologies Inc., Flanders, NJ, has appointed John Abbis director of its Western US sales region. Prior to joining Rudolph, he was VP of sales and marketing at n&k Technology Inc.