Tessera Makes Board Changes, Seeks New CEO

Tessera Technologies Inc. has announced a shakeup of its board and the commencement of a search for a new CEO to replace Robert A. Young. The company has added three independent directors and a new chairman, effective immediately, to guide the company through the next phase of its strategic plan, both in the Intellectual Property and DigitalOptics (DOC) businesses.

The announcement is the latest in a series of recent changes at the company. Last week, its subsidiary DOC announced that it would restructure its business operations to focus on differentiated microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-related technologies. (See: DigitalOptics Refocuses on MEMS, Drops Vertical Integration).

Richard S. Hill has been appointed board chairman, replacing Robert J. Boehlke, who will remain on the board until the May 23 stockholders’ meeting. The new independent directors are John Chenault, John H.F. Miner and Christopher A. Seams.

At the upcoming annual meeting, the three new directors and existing directors Richard S. Hill, Dr. David C. Nagel and Dr. Timothy J. Stultz will all be nominated to the board.

Chenault has served as director of Ultra Clean since June 2009. Before that, he held numerous senior positions at semiconductor company Novellus Systems Inc., most recently as CFO, before retiring in 2005.

Miner is a managing director of Pivotal Investments LLC. Previously, he spent more than 20 years at Intel, most recently as co-president of Intel Capital. He also has held director, board adviser and trustee positions for numerous companies and foundations.

Since 2000, Seams has served as executive vice president at Cypress Semiconductor Corp., where he is responsible for sales and marketing. Before that, he worked in process development for Advanced Micro Devices and Philips Research Laboratories. He is a senior member of IEEE, serves on the Engineering Advisory Council for Texas A&M University and is a Joint Venture Silicon Valley board member.

Hill, who joined the board in August 2012, served as CEO of Novellus Systems from 1993 and as chairman from 1996, until its acquisition by Lam Research Corp. in June 2012. Before that, he held numerous senior management roles during his 12 years at Tektronix Inc. He is the immediate past chairman and a current executive committee member of the University of Illinois Foundation and holds board positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Arrow Electronics, LSI Corp. and Cabot Microelectronics Corp.

Nagel, who joined the board in May 2005, was most recently president and CEO of PalmSource Inc. Before that, he was chief technology officer at AT&T and president of AT&T Labs. He has worked at NASA’s Ames Research Center as head of human factors research and has served on a number of national and international advisory committees, including five years on President Clinton’s first President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. Besides Tessera, he serves on the boards of Vonage Holdings and Align Technology.

Stultz, who joined the board in August 2012, is president and a director of Nanometrics Inc., which he joined in 2007. Previously, he held management positions at Imago Scientific Instruments and Veeco Instruments Metrology Group, and was the founder of Peak Systems. Before that, he spent nine years developing advanced solid-state materials at Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratories.

For more information, visit: www.tessera.com