People Update

02/01/1997

Novellus Systems Inc., San Jose, CA, has named Sheila Vaidya group VP of its newly formed Metals Business Group. Prior to joining Novellus, Vaidya served as director of the Advanced CVD Metals Product Unit of Applied Materials, and was supervisor in three research groups at AT&T Bell Labs.

Koji Kobayashi, chairman emeritus of NEC Electronics Inc., Santa Clara, CA, died November 30. During his 67-year tenure at NEC, Kobayashi also served as president and chairman of the board.

Soitec, Grenoble, France, has appointed Edward P. Pierrot director of operations at its manufacturing facility. Pierrot has more than 15 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, most recently as VP of operations at CEPE, a Thomson-CSF company.

Aera, Beverly Farms, MA, has promoted several executives. Larry Latham has been appointed president. Latham was COO of the company. Mark Bartos has been named CFO. Before his promotion, he served as controller. In addition, Walter Czeropski has been named worldwide account manager for Intel Corp., and Robert Murphy has been appointed customer engineer for Arizona and New Mexico.

Watkins-Johnson Co., Scotts Valley, CA, has named Teruo Ushiba president of Watkins-Johnson International-Japan, a wholly owned subsidiary, and VP of Watkins-Johnson Semiconductor Equipment Group (SEG). A 30-year veteran of Mitsubishi Corp., Ushiba most recently served as senior VP and GM of the company`s Seattle, WA, branch. Peter W. Rose has been appointed manager of SEG`s very low-k program. Before joining Watkins-Johnson, he held technical and management positions with The BOC Group`s Vacuum Technology Division. James A. Bondur has been named SEG`s director of plasma research and development. He was previously director of dielectric technology for Novellus Systems. In addition, Stephen T. Lanza has been appointed managing director of Watkins-Johnson International`s European operations in Linlithgow, Scotland. He was director of Watkins-Johnson`s international finance activities. K.M. Yang has been promoted to GM of Watkins-Johnson International-Korea (WJIK). Yang served as sales and marketing manager at WJIK before his promotion.

Jerry M. Woodall has been elected the 1997 president-elect of The American Vacuum Society (AVS). He is the Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of microelectronics at Purdue University, and has been a member of AVS since 1981.

Akashic Memories Corp., San Jose, CA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota Corp. in Osaka, Japan, has appointed Ronald J. Ritchie president and CEO. Ritchie has held senior executive management positions at Ampex Corp., Allied Signal Corp., and Texas Instruments.

Particle Measuring Systems Inc., Boulder, CO, has appointed Mike Haas director of finance. Most recently, he was a business analyst at IBM in Boulder, CO. Before that, he served as advisory financial analyst at IBM`s Endicott, NY, facility.

Daw Technologies Inc., has appointed Peter J. Spransy VP of research and development. He has been with the company for nine years.

Watlow Electric Manufacturing Co., St. Louis, MO, has named Stephen Desloge VP of finance and administration. Before joining Watlow, Desloge spent 19 years at Coopers & Lybrand, most recently as a partner.

CFM Technologies Inc., West Chester, PA, has named Garry Mayers VP of customer satisfaction. Mayers has more than 20 years of experience in customer support and field service, most recently as director of worldwide customer service at ADE Corp. Huw Thomas, executive VP in the customer satisfaction organization, is leaving the company to pursue personal interests.

Kinetico Inc., Newbury, OH, has named Robert Shaw electrical engineer. Shaw has more than six years of engineering and computer programming experience.

David Walker has been promoted to director of Connecticut operations by Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT. He joined the company in 1995, and was most recently manager of operations.

Anthony S.S. Chan has been appointed CFO and VP of finance and administration at Tessera, San Jose, CA. Most recently, he was CFO, treasurer, and VP of finance/administration at Quick-Logic Corp.

ADE Corp., Westwood, MA, has named Tony Muraco VP of manufacturing operations. Since joining ADE in 1992, he has held positions as materials manager and director of manufacturing. In addition, Steve Brylinsky has been appointed director of US sales. He was VP of sales at SemiTest.

Advanced Energy Industries Inc. (AE), Fort Collins, CO, has promoted Tim Kerr to VP of engineering. Before joining AE in 1987, Kerr worked at Hughes Aircraft Co.

Lam Research Corp., Fremont, CA, has appointed Graham Hills director of technology for dielectric etch. He formerly served as director of the Silicon Etch Key Product Unit of Applied Materials.

The Semiconductor Division of Greene, Tweed & Co., Kulpsville, PA, has appointed David Johnson sales representative of its Southwestern US territory. In addition, Paul Zamprelli has been named sales representative in New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, and Montana.

Chemwest Systems Inc., Portland, OR, has appointed John A. Calhoun to the company`s board of directors. Calhoun is currently president of CMC Research Inc. He spent 19 years with Intel Corp.

GaSonics International, San Jose, CA, has appointed Avner Shelem to VP and GM. He joined GaSonics as VP of engineering in 1994. Before that, Shelem was COO at AG Associates, and held various managerial and engineering positions at Intel Corp. in Israel. In addition, Ralph C. Kerns has been named VP of technology. He was previously VP of the Metal Etch Business Unit of Lam Research.

DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI), Round Rock, TX, has appointed Gilbert V. Shelden director of engineering. Prior to joining the company, Shelden headed photomask development at SEMATECH. He succeeds Paul Chipman, who has been named GM of the DPI Reticle Technology Center, a technology venture among DPI, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Micron Technology Inc., and Motorola Inc. In addition, Randal W. Chance has been named manufacturing technology consultant to DPI`s Round Rock production facility. He has held positions at Texas Instruments, Mostek, and Micron Technology.

Extraction Systems Inc., Franklin, MA, has promoted John Piatt to product sales manager for VaporSorb filtration systems. He was previously Western regional sales manager for the company, and before that, held positions at Crest Ultrasonics Corp., the J. M. Ney Co., and Watkins-Johnson Co. In addition, Cameron Case has been named Western regional sales manager. He was most recently Western regional sales manager at Flanders Filters.

Victoria Hadfield has been promoted to VP of public policy at SEMI, Mountain View, CA. Hadfield joined SEMI in 1987 as director of public policy.

Zmation Inc., Portland, OR, has appointed Don Tennyson manager of field service operations. He was formerly a regional service engineer for Mydata Corp.

Defect and Yield Management Inc., Bedford, MA, has named John Whittaker NeuralNet Engineering Data Analysis (NEDA) product manager. Before joining the company, Whittaker held various positions at Teradyne`s Semiconductor CIM Division, including product manager for the Factory Integrated Resource Management System (FIRMS) product line.

Tylan General Inc., San Diego, CA, has named John T. Rabbitt corporate VP of quality and procurement. Most recently, Rabbitt was VP of quality and materials for Span Instruments, a division of Tylan General acquired in July 1996.

Burleigh Instruments Inc., Fishers, NY, has named Edward Friedrich director of sales and marketing for its Nanopositioning and Life Science Business Unit. He has more than 30 years of experience at Kodak in sales, marketing, distribution, development, and operations.

Esmat Hamdy has been appointed senior VP of operations at Actel Corp., Sunnyvale, CA. He joined Actel in 1985 as a cofounder and manager of device development.

Friedrich Herold has been named GM of the Arizona Photoresist Products Unit of Hoechst Celanese Corp., Somerville, NJ. In 1985, Herold joined Hoechst AG in Germany, where he held positions in the Plastic and Waxes Division, Corporate Research and Development, and the Corporate Center. He was most recently business director of Hoechst Celanese Corp.`s Fine Chemicals business.

California Eastern Laboratories, Santa Clara, CA, has appointed Eric Bergles market research analyst. Before joining the company, Bergles held market research positions at Strategies Unlimited, Memory Devices Corp., and Frost & Sullivan Market Intelligence.

Plasma-Therm Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, has promoted Edmond A. Richards to VP of engineering and company officer. He was formerly director of engineering at Plasma-Therm.

Semifab, Hollister, CA, has named Edward Erickson director of engineering. He has 12 years of service with United Technologies-Chemical Systems Division, where he was most recently manufacturing operations manager.

Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, has announced a restructuring of its board of directors. Ed Heitzeberg has resigned, but remains as VP of design, product engineering, and quality assurance. Bill Stover has also resigned, but continues to serve as CFO and VP of finance. In addition, Tyler Lowrey has left the board and will no longer serve as COO of the company. He will focus his efforts on research and development of advanced technology for future product generations.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp., Camarillo, CA, has appointed Robert J. Cutter VP and GM of its Colorado Springs facility. Previously, Cutter was in charge of operations at Rockwell Semiconductor Systems.

SpeedFam Corp., Chandler, AZ, a wholly owned subsidiary of SpeedFam International Inc., has appointed Philbin L. Scott VP and GM of the products group. Scott joined SpeedFam in 1992, and held positions as product manager and assistant GM for the products group. Before joining the company, he was an industrial engineer for McDonnell Douglas, and served as an environmental engineer for the Toxic Waste Division of the EPA in Ohio with Batelle Labs.

Catalyst Semiconductor Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, has appointed Frederick Chia area sales manager for Southeast Asia, India, and Australia, based in its new sales office in Singapore. Chia was previously a senior sales engineer at Memec Asia Pacific Ltd.