Movers and Shakers

• Stanford provost John L. Hennessy will become the university's tenth president on Sept. 1, 2000. Hennessy, 47, a computer science pioneer who has taught at Stanford for 23 years, will succeed Gerhard Casper, who announced last September that he would step down Aug. 31. Hennessy, an entrepreneur who founded a successful Silicon Valley company based on his research in computer architecture, has been provostýthe university"s chief academic and budget officerýsince June 1999. Hennessy was dean of the School of Engineering from 1996 to 1999 and chairman of the Department of Computer Science from 1994 to 1996. In 1981, Hennessy initiated a project at Stanford that focused on RISC computer architecture. In addition to his role in the basic research, Hennessy played a key part in transferring this technology to industry. During a sabbatical leave in 1984-85 he cofounded MIPS Computer Systems, now known as MIPS Technologies, which specializes in the production of microprocessors. In recent years, Hennessy"s research has focused on building high-performance computers and in making such machines useful to a wide variety of potential users. Hennessy currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of T-span, and also has been on the technical advisory boards for Tensilica, Microsoft, and Virtual Machine Works. Earlier this year, Hennessy was named a co-recipient of the prestigious John von Neumann Medal, awarded by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, of which he is a fellow.
• Paul R. Gray, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, has been named to succeed Carol T. Christ as the campus"s executive vice chancellor and provost. The appointment requires approval by the U.C. Board of Regents and is expected to become effective July 1, 2000. The executive vice chancellor and provost is the campus"s chief academic officer and serves as the chancellor"s second-in-command in all areas of planning and administration. Dean of the college of engineering since 1996, the 57 year-old Gray oversees the campus's largest professional school, which has more than 4,000 students, a faculty of 200 and an annual budget of $130 million. An authority in integrated circuit design, Gray joined the U.C. Berkeley faculty in 1972 as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences. Two years later, he was promoted to associate professor and became a full professor in 1978. He holds the Roy W. Carlson chair in engineering and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the highest professional honor for a U.S. engineer. As dean of U.C. Berkeley"s College of Engineering, Gray oversaw a planned 10 percent increase in enrollment over the past three years. He worked closely with faculty members to establish a new Department of Bioengineering, the college"s first new department in 40 years.
• Dr. William (Bill) Kao has been hired as Arcadia Design Systems (San Jose) new vice president of research and development. Dr. Kao will be responsible for the development, product operations and applications engineering of the company"s Mustang Datapath tool and other EDA products currently in development. Dr. Kao has over 25 years experience in the semiconductor and EDA industries, managing R&D, product engineering and engineering operations.
• Qualis Design Corp. (Lake Oswego, OR) appointed Don Guiou as chief operating officer. Guiou joins Qualis from Mentor Graphics Corp. where he was vice president and division general manager responsible for the growth in Mentor Graphics" emulation, system-level co-verification, and mixed-signal IC design businesses. While at Mentor, Guiou was a member of the board of directors for Silicon Integration Initiative. Prior to Mentor Graphics, he held several sales and marketing positions at Hewlett Packard Corp. Guiou is also a member of the board of directors of the Software Association of Oregon.
• Ron Rohrer has joined the board of directors of Neo Linear, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) as chairman. The company also named Thomas P. Beckley as its president and chief executive officer. Rohrer started his industrial career at Fairchild Semiconductor in the 1960s, and has since served as technical consultant and advisor at IBM, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Synopsys, Avanti, and Mentor Graphics. Rohrer founded Performance Signal Integrity, Inc., which was acquired by Integrated Silicon Systems and later merged with Arcsys to form Avanti Corp. Beckley was most recently head of the Systems Division of Avanti. Previously, Beckley was president and CEO of Xynetix Design Systems.
• GOAL Semiconductor, Inc. (Montreal) appointed Nick Tasker as company president and Irving Lustigman as vice president of engineering. Tasker joined GOAL in January of 1999 as executive VP of marketing & sales. In 1987, Tasker founded Task Microelectronics, Inc. (Montreal). Lustigman joined the company from Wavesat Telecom, Inc., where he held the position of VP of Broadband Wireless Access Products.
• The boards of directors of United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Unipac Optoelectronics (Unipac), and Worldwiser Electronics (WWEI) elected new chairmen: John Hsuan was elected as chairman of UMC; Ing Dar Liu was elected as chairman of Unipac; and T. J. Tseng was elected as chairman of WWEI. The three boards passed resolutions to invite Robert H. C. Tsao, the former chairman of all three companies, to serve as chairman of UMC Group. Tsao explained that preparations for this management restructuring have been ongoing for some time and have been prompted by large-scale investment and revenue growth in recent years. With the appointment of the respective chairmen to their new positions, Tsao will be freed from the demands of daily operations to concentrate on strategic and financial planning for future development of the companies. Year 2000 revenue for the three companies is conservatively forecast at $2.9 billion for UMC, $395 million for Unipac, and $330 million for the WWEI Group.

Money Bits

• Avanti Corp. (Fremont, CA) reported results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2000. For the quarter, revenue was a record $85.2 million, a 19 percent increase over first quarter 1999 revenue of $71.7 million. The company reported that pro forma net earnings excluding merger, in-process research and development expenses and gains from venture capital investment were $16.5 million, a 19 percent increase over first quarter 1999 net income of $13.8 million. Pro forma diluted earnings per share were $0.41, a 21 percent increase over the same period last year. Reported diluted earnings per share including merger, in-process research and development expenses and gains from venture capital investment were $0.47 for the first quarter ended March 31, 2000, compared to $0.34 in the same period last year. During the quarter, the company completed its acquisition of Analogy, Inc., and has recently announced a new stock repurchase program to buy back up to 6 million, or 15 percent of its outstanding common stock.
• NeoLinear, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) completed a second round of financing of $5.4 million. TVM Techno Venture Management of Boston and Intersouth Partners of North Carolina led the investment. Existing shareholders also participated, bringing total funding for Neo Linear since inception to $8.1 million. The new equity will be used to expand research, development and sales teams.
• Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Camarillo, CA) has established a Venture Fund intended to support the growth of pre-IPO communications companies who are developing cutting edge-components and systems. The fund will selectively take minority positions in companies who are developing communication related system and component products.

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