Linear Technology

Mr. Maier was named Chief Executive Officer of Linear Technology in January 2005. Prior to that, Mr. Maier served as the Company's Chief Operating Officer from April 1999 to January 2005. Before joining Linear Technology, Mr. Maier held various management positions at Cypress Semiconductor Corp. from July 1983 to March 1999, most recently as Senior Vice President and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations. He holds a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Robert Dobkin is a founder and Chief Technical Officer of Linear Technology Corporation. Prior to founding Linear Technology in 1981, Mr. Dobkin was Director of Advanced Circuit Development at National Semiconductor for eleven years. Mr. Dobkin has been involved in the development of high performance linear integrated circuits for over 25 years. Many industry standard linear circuits now in production worldwide were developed by Mr. Dobkin. He holds over 50 patents on linear ICs and has authored over 50 articles in technical publications. Mr. Dobkin attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Soule has served as Vice President and General Manager of Signal Conditioning Products since July 2007 and as General Manager of Signal Conditioning Products since October 2004. He joined the Company in September 2002 as Product Marketing Manager of Signal Conditioning Products. Prior to Linear, Mr. Soule was Director of Marketing at Sensory, Inc. from 1997 to 2002. Prior to Sensory, he held various engineering and management positions at National from 1994 to 1997 and from 1986 to 1990 and Avocet, Inc from 1990 to 1994. Mr. Soule received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1986 and an MBA from San Jose State University in 1996.

Mr. Pietkiewicz has served as Vice President and General Manager of S Power Products since July 2007 and as General Manager of S Power Products since April 2005. From March 1995 until April 2005 he was a Design Engineering Manager responsible for switching regulator and linear regulator integrated circuits. Mr. Pietkiewicz began his employment at LTC as a design engineer in December 1987 after serving as a design engineer at Precision Monolithics, Inc. from May 1981 until July 1985, and Analog Devices Inc. from July 1985 until December 1987. Mr. Pietkiewicz received his BSEE degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981.

Mr. Chantalat has served as Vice President of Quality and Reliability since July 1991. From January 1989 to July 1991, he held the position of Director of Quality and Reliability. From July 1983 to January 1989, he held the position of Manager of Quality and Reliability. From February 1976 to July 1983, he was employed in various positions at National where his most recent position was Group Manager of Manufacturing Quality Engineering. Mr. Chantalat received a B.S. and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1970 and 1972, respectively.

Armstrong brings 27 years of industry experience to his new role, including over eight years at Linear as Product Marketing Manager. Prior to joining Linear, he held marketing, management and sales positions with various companies including Siliconix, Semtech, Fairchild and Intel. Armstrong holds a BS (Honors) in Applied Mathematics from the University of Manchester, England.

Jim has more than 12 years of experience in product marketing and applications engineering at analog/mixed-signal semiconductor and power supply companies. Past roles include product and technical marketing leadership positions at Silicon Laboratories, Linear Technology, Raytheon Semiconductor and Power Convertibles Corporation (now C&D Technologies). Jim holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Universtiy of Arizona.

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.

Mr. Volpe has served as Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Group LLC since February 2007 and as Managing Member of Volpe Investments LLC, a risk capital firm, since July 2001. From December 1999 to June 2001, Mr. Volpe served as Chairman of Prudential Volpe Technology Group. Mr. Volpe served as Chief Executive Officer of Volpe Brown Whelan & Company, LLC (formerly Volpe, Welty & Company), a private investment banking and risk capital firm, from its founding in April 1986 until its acquisition by Prudential Securities in December 1999. Until April 1986, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Hambrecht & Quist Incorporated, an investment banking firm with which he had been affiliated since 1981. Mr. Volpe is a member of the board of directors of 7 th Inning Stretch, LLC, EFG-Hermes Holding Company, TAIB Bank B.S.C, Kline Hawkes & Co., LLC, Minor League Baseball and the Dubai Group.