Ellis Smith – President and Chief Executive Officer
Ellis Smith has experience as President and CEO with Orora Design Technologies, TransEDA, Exemplar Logic, and CrossCheck Technology. He has a long history of proven performance in growing a company’s top and bottom-lines in turn-around situations, building experienced management teams, leading mergers and acquisitions, and leading a company through an IPO. Mr. Smith also has strong experience in sales, marketing, and business development in every region of the world.
In 2003, Smith joined Orora Design Technologies, Inc., an electronic design software company in Redmond, Washington, as President and CEO to secure funding and initiate sales as the company’s founder and CTO transitioned from a full-time professor to take over the daily operations of the company
Smith joined TransEDA as CEO in 1999. At TransEDA, he built an experienced management team, structured the company for top- and bottom-line growth, and prepared it for an initial public offering. He led the company through its IPO on the London Stock Exchange, two acquisitions, and 18 months of growth after the successful IPO.
Before joining TransEDA, Smith was president and CEO of Exemplar Logic, Inc. There, he tripled revenues and negotiated Exemplar’s successful 1999 buy-out and merger with Mentor Graphics Corporation for $99.1 million.
Before Exemplar, Smith was president of CrossCheck Technology, Inc., where he restructured and re-capitalized the company and completed its merger with Duet Technologies, Inc.
Prior to CrossCheck, Smith spent his career in international business as an international director of EDA sales for CADAM, an IBM Company; as an international sales manager for Versatec, a Xerox Company; and as an international application engineer for Dictaphone Corporation. He began his career as an engineer for 3M Company. He has a B.S. in Business from LaSalle University, and received training in advanced electronics in the U.S. Navy.
Dr. Prab Varma – Vice President Engineering and CTO
Dr. Varma has over 20 years of experience in test and verification. Before founding Veritable in 1998, he held various management positions in the EDA industry including Vice President of Product Engineering for Duet Technologies, Inc. and Vice President of Engineering at CrossCheck Technology, Inc. From 1988 to 1992, Dr. Varma was an Engineering Manager at Teradyne EDA, responsible for the Aida test generation product line. From 1986 to 1988, Dr. Varma was group leader of the computer aided test methodology group at GEC Research Labs.
As a YKK post-doctoral fellow at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dr. Varma conducted research in the high-level test generation from 1984-1995. He received a Ph.D. in Microelectronics in 1984, and a M.Sc. degree in Integrated Circuit Systems Design in 1982 from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. In 1978, he received a B.Sc. degree in Physics from Imperial College, London.
Dr. Varma has served on numerous IEEE standards and conference committees. He was the founding general chair of the IEEE High-Level Design Verification and Test Workshop in 1996 and 1997, and has served on its steering committee since 1998. He was General Chair of the IEEE VLSI Test Symposium in 1994 and 1995, and has been on its steering committee since 1996. Dr. Varma has received four IEEE Computer Society awards for his contributions to various IEEE conferences. He has also served as co-chair of the virtual Socket Initiative (VSI) manufacturing test working group. He has been an invited panelist on numerous panels at conferences such as the IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC) and the IEEE International Test Conference (ITC) and is the author of more than 30 technical publications.
Dr. William Alexander – Vice President, Marketing
Bill Alexander has about 20 years of marketing and business development experience in the semiconductor and EDA industries. Recently, Bill managed the strategic marketing for major U.S. ASIC accounts at Synopsys, growing their annual revenues and improving customer satisfaction through effective partnering. Bill joined Synopsys through the Avant! Merger, where he drove the corporate SinglePass SoC initiative which was the complete RTL to GDSII design flow solution marketed in EDA.
Bill’s general management abilities were demonstrated at Monterey Design Systems where, as Vice President of Marketing, he helped build an effective marketing team, grew the company to 200 people, merged with Aristo Technology, raised $25 million in venture funding and established the company as a leader in EDA.
At LSI Logic in the early ’90s, Bill managed the ASIC product lines throughout their lifecycles, introducing some of the most successful ASIC products and driving the marketing team to grow revenues and profitability. Bill has introduced new products at many start-up companies and successfully grown their businesses through representatives as well as direct sales channels. His proven marketing plans and business proposals penetrate existing markets, capture market share, open new markets, achieving results with minimal support and resources.
Bill started working in semiconductors at Racal Advanced Development Division and Racal Microelectronics in England. Bill built the first fabrication facility that allowed Racal to program the first gate array products that were procured from Mitel. Bill was part of the team that designed the first CMOS gate arrays at Racal and built some of the initial designs that were fabricated and tested for Racal Datacom and Racal Milgo. Bill then joined National Semiconductor Corporation as the Design Center Manager for Northern Europe and successfully built that business before transferring to the U.S. Bill holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Rick Dissly, CPA – Chief Financial Officer
Rick Dissly is an experienced financial and business executive with broad, proven expertise in establishing profitable business models and systems in pre-IPO and post-IPO companies. He is also known for his successful work in mergers and acquisitions, and for maximizing value for shareholders in technology companies. Prior to his retirement, Mr. Dissly was Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of the Board of Directors at Photon Dynamics, Inc., a Nasdaq Company. At Photon Dynamics, Dissly managed a staff of 50 responsible for all aspects of manufacturing, finance, operational planning, and MIS, and led two follow-on public offerings.
Mr. Dissly has held the positions of CFO at Semaphore Communications Corporation, a Xerox Company, and at Crosscheck Technology. He was COO and VP of Finance at Award Software, and CFO, VP of Finance, and Director of Megatest Corporation. Before Megatest, Mr. Dissly was an accounting manager at American Microsystems, and started his career as a senior auditor for Price Waterhouse. Mr. Dissly has B.S. from Montana State University and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara.
Management
