Board of Directors

Phil Bishop -- Board Member
Phil Bishop is the President and CEO at Pyxis and has over 25 years of experience in high technology industries. Prior to joining Pyxis, Phil spent five years in England as the president and CEO of Celoxica Holdings Plc. While at Celoxica, he forged worldwide technology and business partnerships, grew revenue five fold, and took the company public. Phil has been active on a number of technology company boards, including a non-executive chairman of the board role for Silistix Inc., a provider of integrated circuit (IC) interconnection software. Previous to Celoxica, Phil worked 12 years for Mentor Graphics Corporation (Nasdaq: MENT) in Wilsonville, Oregon, leaving as the Vice President and General Manager of worldwide consulting. At Mentor Graphics, Phil globalized the consulting organization and directed the organization to large increases in revenue and gross margin. Phil has also held engineering and management roles at Motorola Semiconductor/ Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. and Boeing. Phil has a MBA in Global and International business from Duke University, and has a B.Sc. in electrical engineering and a B.Sc. in computer engineering from the University of Michigan.

P.T. Patel -- Board Member
P.T. Patel, founder, executive vice president and CTO, brings over 30 years of microprocessor physical design expertise to the company. Before founding Pyxis, PT spent three years at Sun Microsystems where he was Senior Distinguished Engineer, responsible for setting the vision for microprocessor tools and methodologies for 65nm & below technologies. Prior to Sun, PT was with IBM for 27 years where he served as Distinguished Engineer and led the physical design effort for the Power PC family of microprocessors. He developed structured design methodologies targeted towards reducing total time to market and provided technical leadership for physical design tools development at IBM. PT is a recipient of Corporate and Outstanding Technical Achievement awards from IBM for designs, tools and methodology innovations for Power and PowerPC microprocessors. He received the Chairman’s Award at Sun for CAD tools and methodology innovations. He has been granted 16 U.S. patents and has several publications on chip design, tools and methodology. PT has an MS degree in electrical engineering from University of Connecticut.

Faysal Sohail -- Board Member
Faysal Sohail joined CMEA Ventures in 2002 as a General Partner. He is currently on the Board of Directors of Alien Technology, Applied Wave Research, Inovys Corporation, Pyxis Technology, and Symwave; Faysal is also on the Advisory Board of Telsima. Mr. Sohail brings with him more than a decade of senior executive experience in engineering, marketing and business development. He was CEO of Cadabra Design Automation and managed its acquisition by Numerical Technologies (NMTC) where he served as Sr. Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations. Prior to Numerical Technologies, Faysal was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Synopsys Inc. (SNPS). In 1990, he founded Silicon Architects, which was acquired by Synopsys in 1995. Earlier in his career, Faysal spent several years in ICdesign engineering and marketing positions with Actel Corporation (ACTL) and LSI Logic Corporation (LSI). Mr. Sohail holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) where he also served on the College of Engineering Advisory Board (CEAB).

James E. Solomon -- Board Member
James E. Solomon received the 1997 Phil Kaufman Award for his innovative contributions to design tool technology, which has benefited electronic systems and IC designers worldwide. Jim spent three years designing aerospace systems for Motorola Systems Research Labs (Riverside, CA). Over the next seven years he started and ran Linear IC Design at Motorola Semiconductor (Tempe, Arizona). From 1970 until 1983, Solomon was director of IC design for analog and mixed-signal chips at National Semiconductor (Santa Clara, CA). There he started and developed a half dozen major product lines into mature businesses. In 1983, he founded a software company focused on IC design, Solomon Design Automation (SDA), which later became Cadence Design Systems. Over 12 years he held various positions, including president and CEO, founder and general manager of the analog and mixed-signal unit, general manager of the IC unit, and CTO. Today Cadence is the largest EDA Company in the world with revenues of over $800M. In 1994 he co-founded and is chairman of Smart Machines in San Jose, CA. This company offers high-performance direct drive robots for semiconductor wafer manufacture. In 1995, he co-founded Xulu Entertainment (San Jose, CA), where he is president and CEO. Xulu is developing a next generation high-tech based entertainment venue that will be used in Xulu operated retail sites. Solomon is a Fellow of the IEEE, holds 23 patents in IC design, and has written over 50 papers. His work covering design theory for the monolithic op amp is being taught at universities. Solomon holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from the University of California, Berkeley CA.

Krishna Srinivasan -- Board Member
Krishna Srinivasan joined Austin Ventures in February 2000 and focuses on companies in the Systems and Semiconductor eco system. He is interested in opportunities that originate from the confluence of ambitious entrepreneurs, disruptive technologies, rapidly growing markets, and often plays an active role in helping create companies through in-house incubations, seed investments, and spin outs. Krishna has worked with companies such as Augmentix (incubation), Blacksand (incubation), ClearCube, ColdWatt (spin out), Mavenir Systems (seed), MEMX (spin out), Nanocoolers (incubation), NetBotz (acquired by APC), Netrake (acquired by Audiocodes), Pyxis, Spatial Wireless (incubation; acquired by Alcatel) and Zilliant. Prior to joining Austin Ventures, Krishna was with McKinsey & Company where he worked on growth strategies for semiconductor companies. Earlier, he was with Motorola’s Corporate Offices where he played an active role in strategic and operational improvement projects with the Semiconductor Products Sector and emerging new business ventures. Krishna began his career in Austin at International Sematech. Krishna received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with highest academic honors as a Palmer Scholar. He also has a Masters in Operations Research from the University of Texas at Austin and an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he received the highest award that year for all-round accomplishment. Krishna is a board member of TiE Austin.

Brian Connors -- Board Member
Brian Connors is a founding general partner at Formative Ventures. Brian has more than 29 years of technology leadership in sales and strategic marketing with some of Silicon Valley’s most successful start-ups. His board experience includes IP Infusion (acquired by Access Corporation in 2006), OpenCountry and Pyxis Technology. Prior to co-founding FV, Brian was an angel investor and venture advisor at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Redpoint Ventures, where he helped guide companies from early stage to market leadership positions. Brian has an in-depth operational track record, serving in senior executive positions at several leading technology companies. Brian was vice president of worldwide sales at C-Cube Microsystems, the world’s leading provider of semiconductors and systems for the delivery of compressed digital video. During Brian’s tenure, sales at C-Cube grew from $20 million to $330 million annually. Prior to C-Cube, Brian was vice president of North American sales for Synopsys, Inc., the $1 billion leader in design automation software for complex integrated circuits. One of the early employees at LSI Logic Corp., Brian advanced to become vice president of strategic marketing and sales, managing approximately one-third of the company’s business, including its silicon and software strategies. He holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Northern Arizona University, and attended the Graduate School of Business at Arizona State University.

Ed Charrier -- Strategic Advisor and Board Observer
Ed Charrier is Vice President and General Manager of the Process Control Information Division at KLA-Tencor. He has more than 20 years of software development and software management experience and 14 years in the semiconductor industry in lithography and DFM software. In his current role at KLA-Tencor he is responsible for all standalone software products including DFM, yield, defect, metrology and bare wafer analysis. Prior to KLA-Tencor, Mr. Charrier was the Chief Operating Officer of FINLE Technologies, a provider of lithography and DFM software to the semiconductor industry. FINLE was acquired by KLA-Tencor in February, 2000. Mr. Charrier earned a BSE in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA in management and entrepreneurship from The University of Texas at Austin.

Jim Hogan -- Strategic Advisor to the Board
Jim Hogan is general manager at Vista Ventures Partners. Jim Hogan has worked in the semiconductor industry for over three decades. His experience includes time as a senior executive in electronic design automation, semiconductor intellectual property, semiconductor equipment, and fabrication companies. Prior to Jim’s position at Vista Jim was a General Partner at Telos Venture Partners. Previously, Jim had worked in a number of operating roles at several Semiconductor and supplier companies. Before Telos, Jim was Senior Vice President of Business Development of Artisan Components; Jim was Senior Vice President of Business Development and the senior member of the Office of Chief Technologist at Cadence Design Systems. Jim was a Cadence Executive Fellow and held several positions at Cadence including President of Cadence Japan, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, and Corporate Vice President for Field Operations. He was also Chief Operating Officer of Smart Machines, Inc., a semiconductor equipment automation company. Jim also worked for National Semiconductor for 10 years and for Philips. At both companies, he established and managed device physics laboratories globally. Jim holds a BA degree in mathematics, a BS degree in computer science and an MBA all from San Jose State University. He serves on the Board of Advisors at San Jose State’s School of Engineering, and on the board of directors for several early stage technology start-ups.