About Us
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Paul M. Russo, - CEO, GEO Semiconductor Inc.
Chairman of the Board
Larry Krauss, - Syndicat Management Inc.
Director
Dr. Robert Young, - Mirador Capital LLC.
Director
George A. Duguay, - C.G.A., F.C.I.S.
Director
Dr. Paul M. Russo, PhD
Chairman & CEO
Dr. Russo currently serves as a Chairman and CEO of GEO Semiconductor. He also serves as Director or Lead Director of three other venture funded technology companies including FONOLO (www.fonolo.com) , SiOnyx – the “Black Silicon” Company (www.sionyx.com) and SBG Labs (www.sbglabs.com) . Prior to founding GEO Semi, Dr. Russo Founded Silicon Optix in 2000, a privately held fabless semiconductor company, serving as Chairman & CEO through 2008. GEO acquired certain assets from Silicon Optix in 2009. Prior to Silicon Optix, Dr. Russo was the founder, Chairman and CEO of Genesis Microchip (acquired by ST Micro in 2007) through 2000, including its successful NASDAQ IPO in 1998, and on its board until 2001.
Prior to founding Genesis, he was General Manager of GE's Microelectronics Center, Senior Manager in GE's Industrial Electronics Group and Head, Microsystems Research at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center.
Dr. Russo received his B. Eng. from McGill University and his MSc and PhD in EECS from UC Berkeley. He holds six U.S. patents, is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received numerous RCA and industry awards, including the IEEE Centennial Medal and the 2006 Tech Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum. He served as an outside director of ATI Technologies from 2001 through its acquisition by AMD in late 2006, as well as numerous private venture funded start-ups acquired by public entities (e.g., RocketChips - acquired by Xilinx, Atmos - acquired by MoSys).
Dr. Russo is a member of the Global Semiconductor Association (GSA) Emerging Company CEO Council and participates in its EDA sub-committee.
Larry Krauss
Director
Larry Krauss is a successful lawyer, entrepreneur and private equity fund manager. He started a boutique firm employing 14 lawyers who specialized in commercial law, real estate and tax shelters. Over the past 30 years, Larry has been directly involved in numerous, large-scale commercial real estate investments. Currently, he is the Chairman and CEO of Syndicat Management Inc. (SMI), a leading North American real estate asset management firm. Through SMI Ventures, the technology venture capital arm of SMI, Larry has provided seed funding and investment capital to over 2 dozen startups and high technology firms. Larry graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelors of Science degree. He completed his Bachelors in Law at Osgoode Hall and was called to the Bar in 1978. He completed his Masters in Law at Osgoode Hall in 2001. Larry currently sits on the Board of Directors at the Canadian Friends of Jerusalem College of Technology and has recently completed 8 years of service as Director of the Netivot Hatorah Day School Toronto.
Dr. Robert Young
Director
Dr. Young is a co-founding Managing Director of Mirador Capital LLC, a private equity firm invested in U.S. venture capital firms. He also manages personal private equity investments in early stage technology companies through IRT, Inc. Previously, Dr.Young was Chairman and CEO of Curl Corporation, an Internet infrastructure software company. Prior to that, Dr. Young was a senior partner and Managing Director at Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., an investment bank, where he had corporate finance responsibility for information technology companies. He had previously served as the Managing General Partner of Dillon Read's venture capital funds from 1987 to 1994. These funds invested in early stage companies in information technology, biotechnology, energy and financial services. Dr. Young's personally directed investments included SanDisk, Tessera, Virtual Machine Works and Team Bank. From 1991 to 1995, He was also an advisor to Barings Private Equity Partners, a global private equity group headquartered in London.
Dr. Young started his business career with IBM where, over an 18 year period, he held a number of management and executive positions in sales, marketing, engineering and general management. His last position at IBM was as President, IBM Instruments, a fully integrated global company with operations in the US and several European countries. IBM Instruments' products consisted of a broad range of scientific instruments and real-time scientific computers. Dr. Young is a founding investor and Director of Tessera (NASDAQ: TSRA), the leading semi-conductor interconnect technology company. He was also a Director of ATI Technologies (NASDAQ: ATYT), a leading producer of 3-D graphics and multimedia products until its merger with AMD in 2006. Dr. Young is also an investor and Director of several private technology companies: SRC Computers, a producer of re-configurable, high performance computers; Innolume, a company producing quantum dot lasers for optical clocking of integrated circuits and computer interconnect applications; Jatheon, a provider of network appliances for messaging compliance management; SBG Labs Inc. which has unique solid-state optical device technology, Open-Xchange, which offers an open source exchange server product and Novitaz, a company producing active RFID hardware and software modules for unique customer-centric, loyalty-based solutions in retail. Dr. Young has served on the visiting committees of the both the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Chemistry at MIT and is an advisor to PolyTechnos, a European venture capital firm headquartered in Munich. He holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from MIT.
George A. Duguay
Director
Mr. Duguay is an executive with experience in the technology, financial services and resource industries. Since 1988, he's been the president of G. Duguay Services Inc., a partner of Duguay and Ringler Corporate Services until February 2006, a provider of corporate and financial administrative services to public companies. G. Duguay Services Inc. continues to act as a consultant in this area. He presently is Corporate Secretary of three public companies, and a Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Intrinsyc Software International, Inc. a company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Intrinsyc provides proprietary software, hardware, and services for the growing market of mobile handheld products, which includes consumer handsets, personal navigation devices, smart phones, eReaders and other mobile and embedded devices.
Mr. Duguay was a founder of Equity Financial Holdings Inc. a company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Equity provides stock transfer, corporate trust, foreign exchange, corporate secretary and compliance services through their group of companies. In addition, during the period May 1993 to December 2004, Mr. Duguay served as a director of Genesis Microchip Inc., the world's leading supplier of display image processors which during that time was listed on NASDAQ. Mr. Duguay was also a founder and director of GA Capital Corp.
Mr. Duguay is a Certified General Accountant (C.G.A.) and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries (F.C.I.S.).
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Paul M. Russo, - CEO, GEO Semiconductor Inc.
Chairman of the Board
Larry Krauss, - Syndicat Management Inc.
Director
Dr. Robert Young, - Mirador Capital LLC.
Director
George A. Duguay, - C.G.A., F.C.I.S.
Director
Dr. Paul M. Russo, PhD
Chairman & CEO
Dr. Russo currently serves as a Chairman and CEO of GEO Semiconductor. He also serves as Director or Lead Director of three other venture funded technology companies including FONOLO (www.fonolo.com) , SiOnyx – the “Black Silicon” Company (www.sionyx.com) and SBG Labs (www.sbglabs.com) . Prior to founding GEO Semi, Dr. Russo Founded Silicon Optix in 2000, a privately held fabless semiconductor company, serving as Chairman & CEO through 2008. GEO acquired certain assets from Silicon Optix in 2009. Prior to Silicon Optix, Dr. Russo was the founder, Chairman and CEO of Genesis Microchip (acquired by ST Micro in 2007) through 2000, including its successful NASDAQ IPO in 1998, and on its board until 2001.
Prior to founding Genesis, he was General Manager of GE's Microelectronics Center, Senior Manager in GE's Industrial Electronics Group and Head, Microsystems Research at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center.
Dr. Russo received his B. Eng. from McGill University and his MSc and PhD in EECS from UC Berkeley. He holds six U.S. patents, is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received numerous RCA and industry awards, including the IEEE Centennial Medal and the 2006 Tech Pioneer Award from the World Economic Forum. He served as an outside director of ATI Technologies from 2001 through its acquisition by AMD in late 2006, as well as numerous private venture funded start-ups acquired by public entities (e.g., RocketChips - acquired by Xilinx, Atmos - acquired by MoSys).
Dr. Russo is a member of the Global Semiconductor Association (GSA) Emerging Company CEO Council and participates in its EDA sub-committee.
Larry Krauss
Director
Larry Krauss is a successful lawyer, entrepreneur and private equity fund manager. He started a boutique firm employing 14 lawyers who specialized in commercial law, real estate and tax shelters. Over the past 30 years, Larry has been directly involved in numerous, large-scale commercial real estate investments. Currently, he is the Chairman and CEO of Syndicat Management Inc. (SMI), a leading North American real estate asset management firm. Through SMI Ventures, the technology venture capital arm of SMI, Larry has provided seed funding and investment capital to over 2 dozen startups and high technology firms. Larry graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelors of Science degree. He completed his Bachelors in Law at Osgoode Hall and was called to the Bar in 1978. He completed his Masters in Law at Osgoode Hall in 2001. Larry currently sits on the Board of Directors at the Canadian Friends of Jerusalem College of Technology and has recently completed 8 years of service as Director of the Netivot Hatorah Day School Toronto.
Dr. Robert Young
Director
Dr. Young is a co-founding Managing Director of Mirador Capital LLC, a private equity firm invested in U.S. venture capital firms. He also manages personal private equity investments in early stage technology companies through IRT, Inc. Previously, Dr.Young was Chairman and CEO of Curl Corporation, an Internet infrastructure software company. Prior to that, Dr. Young was a senior partner and Managing Director at Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., an investment bank, where he had corporate finance responsibility for information technology companies. He had previously served as the Managing General Partner of Dillon Read's venture capital funds from 1987 to 1994. These funds invested in early stage companies in information technology, biotechnology, energy and financial services. Dr. Young's personally directed investments included SanDisk, Tessera, Virtual Machine Works and Team Bank. From 1991 to 1995, He was also an advisor to Barings Private Equity Partners, a global private equity group headquartered in London.
Dr. Young started his business career with IBM where, over an 18 year period, he held a number of management and executive positions in sales, marketing, engineering and general management. His last position at IBM was as President, IBM Instruments, a fully integrated global company with operations in the US and several European countries. IBM Instruments' products consisted of a broad range of scientific instruments and real-time scientific computers. Dr. Young is a founding investor and Director of Tessera (NASDAQ: TSRA), the leading semi-conductor interconnect technology company. He was also a Director of ATI Technologies (NASDAQ: ATYT), a leading producer of 3-D graphics and multimedia products until its merger with AMD in 2006. Dr. Young is also an investor and Director of several private technology companies: SRC Computers, a producer of re-configurable, high performance computers; Innolume, a company producing quantum dot lasers for optical clocking of integrated circuits and computer interconnect applications; Jatheon, a provider of network appliances for messaging compliance management; SBG Labs Inc. which has unique solid-state optical device technology, Open-Xchange, which offers an open source exchange server product and Novitaz, a company producing active RFID hardware and software modules for unique customer-centric, loyalty-based solutions in retail. Dr. Young has served on the visiting committees of the both the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Chemistry at MIT and is an advisor to PolyTechnos, a European venture capital firm headquartered in Munich. He holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from MIT.
George A. Duguay
Director
Mr. Duguay is an executive with experience in the technology, financial services and resource industries. Since 1988, he's been the president of G. Duguay Services Inc., a partner of Duguay and Ringler Corporate Services until February 2006, a provider of corporate and financial administrative services to public companies. G. Duguay Services Inc. continues to act as a consultant in this area. He presently is Corporate Secretary of three public companies, and a Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Intrinsyc Software International, Inc. a company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Intrinsyc provides proprietary software, hardware, and services for the growing market of mobile handheld products, which includes consumer handsets, personal navigation devices, smart phones, eReaders and other mobile and embedded devices.
Mr. Duguay was a founder of Equity Financial Holdings Inc. a company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Equity provides stock transfer, corporate trust, foreign exchange, corporate secretary and compliance services through their group of companies. In addition, during the period May 1993 to December 2004, Mr. Duguay served as a director of Genesis Microchip Inc., the world's leading supplier of display image processors which during that time was listed on NASDAQ. Mr. Duguay was also a founder and director of GA Capital Corp.
Mr. Duguay is a Certified General Accountant (C.G.A.) and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries (F.C.I.S.).