GSA Adds Four News Members to Asia Pacific Leadership Council

Taipei, Taiwan (AUG 28, 2013) - The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), the voice of the global semiconductor industry, today announced the addition of four new members to the GSA Asia-Pacific Leadership Council, which serves as advisors to the GSA Board of Directors on regional issues. The new members added include Dr. Zhenyu Zhou, chief executive officer, Actions Semiconductor Co. Ltd., Wilson Tzang, president of Faraday Technology Corporation, and and Dr. Simon Yang, chief executive officer of XMC; what is worth mention is Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, executive director of A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME), representing Singapore to serve as the special advisor of this council.

“I am pleased to see the addition of these four distinguished executives to the APAC Council,” said Jodi Shelton, co-founder and president of GSA. “These industry leaders add valuable guidance and strong leadership to the Council, thus strengthening our presence in this dynamic region.”

“With the changes in the global economic and trade environment, the Asia-Pacific Leadership Council is playing an increasingly important role in the Global Semiconductor Alliance’s development. The council needs more industrial executives’ leadership. Therefore, I am glad to see four distinguished leaders join our GSA Asia-Pacific Leadership Council, which will add more services, valuable advice, and stronger leadership in the APAC region,” said Dr. Nicky Lu, chairman of the GSA Asia-Pacific Leadership Council, and chairman & chief executive officer of Etron Technology, Inc.” said Dr. Nicky Lu, chairman of the GSA Asia-Pacific Leadership Council, and chairman & chief executive officer of Etron Technology, Inc.

Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong is the executive director of IME, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore, and a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at National University of Singapore. He was Earl N. and Margaret Bransfield Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin from 1990-2007 and the Temasek Professor of National University of Singapore from 2001-2004. Prof. Kwong is an IEEE Fellow. He serves on Board of Advisor for Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association. He is the author of more than 1,100 referred archival publications, an owner of more than 25 U.S. patents, and an receiver of many awards including IBM Faculty Award in 1984 to 1986, Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Inventor Awards in 1993 to 1994, IEEE George Smith Award in 2007, IEEE Frederik Philips Award in 2011 with citation: “For leadership in silicon technology and excellence in the management of microelectronics R&D”, and many other awards. His conferral of the President’s Science and Technology Medal of Singapore in 2012 recognized his distinguished contributions to Singapore’s science and engineering landscape, particularly in advancing the semiconductor industry.

Dr. Zhenyu Zhou of Actions Semiconductor Co. Ltd. was the founder of NetRidium Communications, Inc., a leader in high speed home networking, which was acquired by ESS Technologies, Inc. in February 2000. Afterwards, he served as senior vice president at ESS, and was responsible for the business and R&D of cell phone CMOS Sensor and broad band home networking. He was also the founder and founding CEO of Mavrix Technology, a developer of multimedia and mobile TV SOCs for brand name and non-branded cell phone makers in 2005. Dr. Zhou has over 16 years of senior management experience, with expertise in establishing R&D teams, setting strategy and product road maps, and driving revenue growth through design win activity. A native of China who has extensive U.S. management experience, Dr. Zhou has proficiency in effectively running a China-based company that serves the global markets.

Wilson Tzang serves as the president of Faraday since March, 2011, and has led Faraday to achieve record-high revenue in 2012, contributed by his strategies and endeavors to enhance the operation efficiency, optimize RD resources and capabilities, and to solidify the customer structure. Tzang started off his career from R&D jobs for approximately 10 years at ITRI, and years of experience in RD management position in the industry. While in ITRI, Tzang was one of the first delegates sent to the U.S. for dedicated research in ASIC design. Having acquired abundant R&D capability and experiences, Tzang later branched out his career to serve as the Vice President in marketing/sales department at Faraday and Sonix? Technology. He was known for his conceiving pin-pointed marketing strategies as well as execution capabilities.

Dr. Simon Yang is a veteran semiconductor industry executive. He brings a dynamic vision to XMC, leading the company’s strategy for global expansion and a redefinition of the foundry model. Prior to taking over as chief executive officer of XMC in 2012, he was chief operation officer at SMIC. His previous roles include chief technical officer and senior vice president of operations at Chartered Semiconductor (now GlobalFoundries) and R&D and Manufacturing director at Intel. He holds more than 20 patents. Currently he also serves as an executive consultant to many of China’s semiconductor initiatives. He received his PhD in Materials Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

With the four new additions, GSA’s Asia-Pacific Leadership Council is now comprised of 29 members.

About GSA:

The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) mission is to accelerate the growth and increase the return on invested capital of the global semiconductor industry by fostering a more effective ecosystem through collaboration, integration and innovation. It addresses the challenges within the supply chain including IP, EDA/design, wafer manufacturing, test and packaging to enable industry-wide solutions. Providing a platform for meaningful global collaboration, GSA identifies and articulates market opportunities, encourages and supports entrepreneurship, and provides members with comprehensive and unique market intelligence. Members include companies throughout the supply chain representing 30 countries across the globe.