Farhad Tabrizi, Grandis, Inc.

Farhad Tabrizi is president and chief executive officer of Grandis, Inc. In January 2007, he was appointed to this position, succeeding William Almon, Grandis co-founder, who remains a major shareholder. Tabrizi joined the company from Lexar Media, Inc., where he served as vice president, supply chain management and corporate development. Previously, he was vice president of worldwide marketing for Hynix Semiconductor. In this position, he focused on developing, marketing and supporting Hynix's strategies for growing the corporation's DRAM and flash businesses. Prior to joining Hynix, he held various management and design positions at leading semiconductor companies. Tabrizi brings to Grandis over 23 years experience in senior management, design, marketing, supply chain management, business development, strategic alliances, and industry standard committee chairmanship in the electronics industry. He received his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.

Yiming Huai is the Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering at Grandis, Inc.  He has over 20 years’ technical and senior management experience in thin-film materials, processing and devices. Prior to co-founding Grandis, he served as Senior Thin-Film Director at Read-Rite Corporation, where he led the development and manufacturing of industry-leading high-density spin-valve recording heads for hard disk drives from 1996-2002. He previously worked as a Staff Scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on ultra-high density magnetic sensors and as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada. He received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, both in Physics, from the University of Montreal in Canada. He has published over 90 papers in scientific journals, holds 34 patents and has more than 40 patents pending.

Steve Domenik, Sevin Rosen Funds

Steve Domenik joined Sevin Rosen Funds in 1995, bringing considerable experience from both established and small companies in the semiconductor and software industries. His current investment interests span high technology and he is no stranger to the startup world. In the early 1980s, Steve was CEO of two high-technology companies in the RFID and software domains, both of which had successful M&A outcomes. He also was the Vice President of Marketing at Cyrix, an SRF portfolio company where he worked from the early days until after the IPO. Prior to Cyrix, Steve was the Vice President Marketing at Weitek, another venture-backed start up company that went public. Steve traces his passion for young technology companies to his early years at Intel where he worked in marketing and engineering positions and, finally, as the manager of microprocessor design centers in California and Japan. During his tenures at Cyrix and Weitek, Steve lived in Japan and Singapore, where he established the Asian headquarters for each of those companies.

Shirish Sathaye, Matrix Partners

Shirish Sathaye, based in our Silicon Valley office, has over 5 years of experience in the venture industry, investing in early-stage information technology companies. Prior to a venture career, Shirish had over 15 years operating experience in IT companies, both as an entrepreneur and as an executive. Before joining Matrix, he was the VP of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer at Alteon WebSystems, where he led the engineering organization almost from its inception through a highly successful IPO and subsequent acquisition by Nortel Networks. Prior to Alteon, Shirish was at FORE Systems, where he led the development of all of FORE's award-winning ATM switch products. Before FORE, Shirish spent eight years at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he worked on Internet routing protocols, Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM network technologies. Shirish has a Ph.D in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Judy O’Brien, Incubic Ventures

Judy O'Brien is a venture partner at Incubic Ventures and an Executive Vice President of International Strategy and General Counsel at Obopay, Inc., which provides a comprehensive mobile payments service. From start-up to IPO of venture-backed start-ups, Judy has been the business lawyer for many of the premier high tech companies that have truly shaped Silicon Valley: companies like Juniper Networks, Sun Microsystems, and LSI Logic. Judy became known as "the first lawyer to meet" for entrepreneurs looking for venture funding, as she has worked very effectively with all the top tier venture firms on Sand Hill Road. Judy's reputation and network put her just a single phone call from any of the top technology movers in Silicon Valley. Throughout her career, Judy has acted as a business adviser to her clients. She continues to actively play that role at Incubic. In addition to Juniper, Sun, and LSI in her 20 years at Silicon Valley's premier law firm, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Judy has been counsel to KLA/Tencor, Avanex, Coherent, New Focus, and many others. She received her law degree from UCLA, where she was named to the Order of the Coif, and her BA, with honors, from Smith College.

Julien Nguyen, Concept Ventures

Julien Nguyen is a serial entrepreneur who founded and led four successful startups from inception to market leadership in digital media, semiconductor and software. Prior to co-founding Concept Ventures, Julien Nguyen founded Applied Materials Ventures in 2001, and was a Managing Partner until 2005. He led investments in companies such as Devicescape, Grandis, M-Stream, Takumi. Prior to Applied Materials Ventures, Julien Nguyen was a Venture Partner at Global Catalyst Partners focusing on investments in communications infrastructure. Julien co-founded Ezlogin, founded Novita Communications in 1996; and launched E-Motions in May 1992.   Julien earned a Master of Science degree from Ecole Polytechnique in France and a Post Graduate degree from Telecom Paris. Julien holds 21 patents granted in the US.