Amtech Systems Elects 2 New Board Members

Michael Garnreiter and Brian Hoekstra were elected to the board of Amtech Systems Inc., effective Feb. 19, the company announced Friday. Hoekstra is founder, president and CEO of Applied Photonics Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz., provider of laser technology for the semiconductor flat-panel display industries. He was previously vice president of technology at Accudyne Corp. and a project scientist for the US Display Consortium-sponsored laser glass separation project. Hoekstra was also founder and deputy director of a NASA Commercial Center focused on electronic and optical materials processing in space. A graduate of the US Air Force Academy and a pilot with the 64th Flying Training Wing, he qualified for the manned space flight program in 1988. Hoekstra has a bachelor's degree in physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and is a PhD candidate in electro-optics at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. Garnreiter is a CPA and was a senior audit partner of Arthur Andersen LLP, where he served for nearly 28 years before retiring. He is also on the boards of Knight Transportation Co. and Taser International. Tempe, Ariz.-based Amtech Systems makes silicon wafer handling automation, thermal semiconductor processing equipment and related consumables used in fabricating semiconductor, microelectromechanical systems and solar cells.