Austin Ventures Welcomes Former Lucent CTO and Sematech CEO as New Venture Partner; Mark Melliar-Smith to Help Lead Firm in Semiconductor Investments.Business Editors AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2002 Austin Ventures, one of the nation's largest venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] and most active semiconductor investors, today announced the addition of Mark Melliar-Smith as a venture partner. Melliar-Smith, who has 20 years of operational experience in the semiconductor industry, joins general partner Stephen Straus and venture partner Jim Clardy in the firm's active and growing semiconductor practice. "We're excited and honored to add Mark to the Austin Ventures team," said John Thornton John Thornton is the name of:
Previously, Melliar-Smith was president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Austin-based SEMATECH SEMATECH Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology , a global consortium of 13 semiconductor manufacturing companies. Melliar-Smith also served as CTO (Chief Technical Officer) The executive responsible for the technical direction of an organization. See CIO and salary survey. of Lucent Microelectronics and was the first vice president and general manager of Lucent's optical division. He has extensive research and development and manufacturing experience in integrated circuits Integrated circuits Miniature electronic circuits produced within and upon a single semiconductor crystal, usually silicon. Integrated circuits range in complexity from simple logic circuits and amplifiers, about 1/20 in. (1. , photonics and fiber optics fiber optics, transmission of digitized messages or information by light pulses along hair-thin glass fibers. Each fiber is surrounded by a cladding having a high index of refractance so that the light is internally reflected and travels the length of the fiber , including serving as executive director at Bells Labs, where he managed integrated circuit integrated circuit (IC), electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon. The circuit, often called a chip, is packaged in a hermetically sealed case or a nonhermetic plastic capsule, with leads extending from it for and photonics technology. "Despite the current downturn in the semiconductor market, Austin Ventures believes in the long-term entrepreneurial opportunities in semiconductors," said Stephen Straus, Austin Ventures general partner who heads up the firm's semiconductor practice. "Mark not only has a high profile in the global semiconductor industry, he is a great addition for us given his passion for bringing disruptive technologies to market and for entrepreneurialism. We believe that Mark's expertise and leadership will help us emerge from this environment with even greater momentum as a semiconductor investor." "I am delighted to be joining Austin Ventures," Melliar-Smith said. "This is a great opportunity for me to join a stellar venture capital firm and to work with start-up companies and help entrepreneurs bring new products and technologies to market. I have been particularly impressed with the strategic vision at Austin Ventures and the strong support it provides to these start-up companies." Austin Ventures has invested in 13 Austin- and Dallas-based semiconductor companies including Silicon Labs, Benchmarq (Texas Instruments), Agere (Lucent), Crystal Semiconductor (Cirrus Logic), Silicon Metrics, Banderacom, Layer N Networks and Cygnal Integrated Products. About Austin Ventures With more than $3.1 billion under management, Austin Ventures has grown to be the one of the largest venture capital firms in the United States. Over the past two decades, Austin Ventures has built its investment portfolio by focusing on seed and early-stage investments primarily located in Texas and the Southwest. |
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