About Us

MANAGEMENT TEAM

Dr. Paul M. Russo, PhD
Chairman & CEO

Simon Westbrook
CFO

Michael Hopton
VP Operations & GM Toronto

Ronald Allard
VP Worldwide Sales

Chris Candler
Director of Engineering

Hiro Ito
Vice President & GM Japan

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.




Simon Westbrook
CFO

Simon Westbrook was appointed Chief Financial Officer of GEO Semiconductor Inc. in December, 2010. Since May 2009 he has specialized in providing contract CFO services to technology start-ups. From May 2005 to May 2009 Mr. Westbrook served as Chief Financial Officer of Public Wireless, Inc, a Silicon Valley company specializing in wireless communication infrastructure and from 2004 to 2005 he was CFO of Nanoamp Solutions Inc. a memory IC company. Prior to joining Nanoamp, Mr. Westbrook was Chief Financial Officer at Sage, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAGI), a company specializing in flat panel displays. Before joining Sage, Mr. Westbrook held a number of senior financial positions at Creative Technology (NASDAQ: CREAF), a leading PC multimedia company, and Atari Corp (AMEX: ATC), the video game and home computer company both in the USA and overseas.

Mr. Westbrook is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters degree in Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom.




Michael Hopton
VP Operations & GM Toronto

Michael Hopton currently serves as VP and GM Toronto Operations for GEO Semiconductor Inc (GEO). Prior to joining GEO, Mr. Hopton served as VP Operations at Silicon Optix Inc from 2004 until 2008, he also served as Director of Operations from 2000 (when the company was founded) until 2004.

Prior to Silicon Optix Mr. Hopton served as Manager of Manufacturing Engineering at Genesis Microchip Inc. from 1995-2000. In this position, he supported the development qualification, release to production, and sustaining engineering on Genesis products. Prior to 1995, Mr. Hopton performed test program development, characterization and production engineering on Genesis products. He started his career at Texas Instruments working as Senior Product Engineer on mixed-signal devices for the Automotive and Cell Phone Markets from 1988 to 1991.

Mr. Hopton is a 1988 graduate from the Heirot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, with a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Ronald Allard
VP Worldwide Sales

Ronald Allard serves as VP of Worldwide Sales for GEO Semiconductor, Inc. (GEO). Prior to joining GEO, Mr. Allard drove worldwide channel sales and emerging markets for Magnum Semiconductor, a leading video compression processor company for professional broadcast applications.

Prior to Magnum from 2003 to 2009, Mr. Allard served as VP of Sales for W&W Communications, Inc., a successful high definition video compression chip company acquired by Cavium Networks, Inc. From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Allard co-founded and served as VP of Business Development at InfoMove, a leading wireless technology company, where he drove sales and strategic relationships worldwide. Prior to InfoMove, Mr. Allard served in senior sales and business development roles including over 10 years with Sony Corporation.

Mr. Allard holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from University of Houston, Houston, Texas and a MBA Degree from Pepperdine University, Malibu, California.

Chris Candler
Director of Engineering

Mr. Candler serves as Director of Engineering for GEO Semiconductor Inc. Previously, Mr. Candler served as Staff ASIC Designer and as ASIC Design Manager & Systems Architect (2006-2010) at Fresco Microchip, a mixed-signal fables semiconductor company. Prior to Fresco Microchip, Mr. Candler served as a Senior ASIC Designer and ASIC Design Manager (2001 – 2006) at Silicon Optix Inc. Mr. Candler architected and managed the ASIC development of the sxW2 geometric processing chip acquired by GEO Semiconductor. Prior to Silicon Optix, Mr. Candler served as Senior Hardware Design Engineer at Leitch Technology, acquired by Harris Corporation.

Mr. Candler received his B.Eng. from McGill University in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his MSc degree from the University of Maryland in Electrical Engineering, major in digital communications. Mr. Candler is a registered professional engineer in Ontario, Canada.

Mr. Candler holds a patent related to the sxW2 chip.

Hiro Ito
Vice President & GM Japan

Hiro Ito currently serves as GEO's VP and GM Japan. Prior to joining GEO, Mr. Ito served as Managing Director at Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL) since its acquisition of Techwell (NASDAQ: TWLL) in 2010. While at Techwell, he served as President of Techwell Japan from 2006 until 2010. Prior to joining Techwell, Mr. Ito served as General Partner of Global Technologies Alliance, a venture capital firm specializing in investments in startup companies in the high-tech sector. Prior to Global Technologies Alliance, Mr. Ito served as General Manager, Business Development of Kanematsu, a Japanese Trading firm specializing in business opportunities between US and Japan.

Mr. Ito is a 1982 graduate from the University in Tokyo, Japan, with a Bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering.