Cypress Semiconductor Corp.

Ahmad became President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors in March 2009. Prior to MEMC Ahmad served as Executive Vice President of the Memory and Imaging Division, and head of global manufacturing for Cypress Semiconductor. In these roles, he was responsible for strategy, financial performance and revenue growth for the Memory and Imaging Division, as well as global manufacturing for all divisions of Cypress. Previously Ahmad served as managing director of Cypress' Low Power Memory Business Unit. Prior to these roles at Cypress, Ahmad served in sales at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Ahmad holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Arizona State University, a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and has completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University.

Francis Courreges was appointed executive vice president of operations at Cypress Semiconductor Corp. in January, 2006. Mr. Courreges is responsible for production control, planning, operations and customer service. Prior to his current position, Mr. Courreges served as vice president of quality. Mr. Courreges originally joined Cypress in 2000, where he was the managing director for Specialty Memory in the Data Communications Division. Prior to his tenure at Cypress, he served as the chief technical officer for PixTech Inc., a company that develops flat panel display technology. Mr. Courreges has also held various management positions in technology development, wafer fabrication, yield engineering, and technical marketing for ASIC and memory products. He earned a masters degree and a Ph.D. in materials science from Stanford University.

Cathal Phelan, president and CEO, is a seasoned professional with over 20 years' experience in the semiconductor industry. Prior to Ubicom, Mr. Phelan held several leadership positions during a 15-year tenure at Cypress Semiconductor. Most recently, as vice president of the Data Communications division, he was responsible for the company's WAN, SAN and wireless infrastructure businesses. Mr. Phelan also headed up the Personal Communications Division which, under his leadership, achieved better than 40 percent market share in the standalone USB market. Prior to Cypress, Mr. Phelan worked for six years at the Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Christopher Norris, President & Chief Executive Officer Mr. Norris previously served as the Vice President and General Manager of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, most recently for the Consumer and Computation Division. Prior to joining Cypress, he was at Intel, where he was involved in both manufacturing and development. Mr. Norris joined MicroDisplay in 2005 and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the MicroDisplay Corporation with 22 years industry experience.

Mr. Minor joined Symmetricom in 2006, bringing over 25 years’ experience in human resources, business and finance. Prior to Symmetricom, Mr. Minor directed global human resource practices at Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. Previous to Cypress, Mr. Minor directed worldwide human resource strategies and programs for Lam Research Corporation. He also held senior-level human resource positions at KLA Instruments and the Electric Power Research Institute. Mr. Minor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California State University at Hayward, and a Masters in Business Administration from Notre Dame de Namur University.

Dr. Donato Montanari is European Strategic Marketing Director at Cypress Semiconductor, San Jose, CA. Before joining Cypress Europe he was at Testchip Technologies, Austin TX where he was responsible for starting, developing and managing a new business unit including its product definition and design. Before Testchip Technologies, Dr. Montanari worked at the Memory Product Division of Cypress Semiconductor, San Jose, CA, the Material and Packaging Division, IMEC, Leuven, Belgium and at the Central Research & Development Division, ST Milan, Italy. Dr. Montanari received his M. S. Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. Electrical Engineering ongoing from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He holds four US Patents granted and eleven patents pending in the field of circuit design. He's been a participant, speaker and invited speaker at several international technical conferences and workshops.

Bruce is our QuickBooks ProAdvisor certified bookkeeper. He has a broad range of accounting and bookkeeping experience, and has performed accounting operations at iBizLogic, Cypress Semiconductor and Western Medical Center. His expertise includes bookkeeping, accounts payable and accounts receivable.

Paul McWilliams is the founder and editor of Next Inning Technology Research. McWilliams has over twenty-five years of experience in the semiconductor and high-tech industries, working with companies such as Linear Technology, Altera, Cypress Semiconductor, American Technical Ceramics, Arrow Electronics, Avnet, Micrel, Power-One, Siliconix, Xicor, and many others. After starting his career at Avnet in the mid-seventies, McWilliams left in 1977 to start his own company, MTS Inc., which contracted with various manufacturers to act as their exclusive representative for sales, marketing and application support. While at MTS, McWilliams was involved in a wide variety of products ranging from semiconductors to microwave sub-systems and even cesium timing standards (atomic clocks). When confronted with an opportunity to sell his stake in MTS Inc., McWilliams jumped at the chance to concentrate on investing full-time, something he began at the age of ten by making a smart bet on the initial public offering of ComSat. With the knowledge gained through years of direct field experience, a wide range of industry contacts and healthy a dose of common sense, McWilliams provides readers many with a better understanding of how technology moves through our economic system and ideas as to how they can optimize their investing profits while managing risks. It was this, and his folksy writing style, that led SmartMoney magazine to select him as one of the thirty most influential people in the world of investing. When not researching and writing about investing, McWilliams enjoys time with his family. He loves to travel and participate in outdoor activities. The entire McWilliams' family is active in a variety of community service projects supporting causes such as Project SOS, Hospice, mentoring inner-city children and coaching youth sports.

Sons Gavin and Colin are now college graduates. Gavin is a marketing engineer for Cypress Semiconductor in the Seattle area. Colin is a doctoral candidate at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.