Silvaco Announces Appointment of Five Industry Veterans to Its Board of Directors

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- November, 8, 2022 -- Silvaco Group, Inc. (“Silvaco”), a provider of TCAD, EDA software and design IP, today announced the addition of John Cleveland, Dr. Hau Lee, William Molloie, Dr. Walden Rhines and Jodi Shelton to its board of directors (the “Board”). The new members bring a wealth of financial, business, and operational expertise to the Board to help oversee Silvaco’s domestic and global businesses.

“The new board members are all accomplished executives with strong technology, management, financial and human resources experience in the high-technology market,” said Kathy Pesic, the Chair of the Board. “These additions to the Board will guide our business as we continue to serve the semiconductor and optoelectronics design communities and help strengthen the corporate governance of Silvaco.”

John Cleveland served as Chief Human Resources Officer of Seagate Technology Holdings plc, a data storage and management solutions company, from 2017 to 2020, and as its Vice President Global Compensation, Benefits, Mobility, Compliance, M&A from 2006 to 2017. Prior to joining Seagate, Mr. Cleveland held human resources and leadership roles at various high-technology systems, software, semiconductor, and aerospace companies. Mr. Cleveland is a lead advisor of SkyDeck Berkeley, a startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley, is an executive advisor to Empath Ventures and Neowork Ventures and was an adjunct faculty lecturer at San Jose State University. Mr. Cleveland received a B.A in industrial psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University.

Dr. Hau L. Lee is the Thoma Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His areas of specialization include global value chain innovations, supply chain management, global logistics, inventory modeling, and environmental and social responsibility. Dr. Lee is also the faculty advisor for the Stanford Institute for Innovations in Developing Economies and is a co-director of the Stanford Value Chain Innovation Initiative. Dr. Lee has been elected to the US National Academy of Engineering, and is a Fellow of INFORMS, MSOM and POMS. He has consulted extensively in the public and private sectors, and was a co-founder of DemandTec, which went public in 2007. Dr. Lee serves on the board and advisory board of several logistics services and supply chain software companies and has also given executive training workshops on supply chain management and global logistics in Asia, Europe, and [North] America. Dr. Lee received a B.Soc.Sc. in Economics and Statistics from the University of Hong Kong, a M.Sc. in Operational Research from the London School of Economics and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

William Molloie is currently a Lecturer in the graduate program of the University of California, San Diego, Rady School of Management and is a member of the Board and the compensation committee of a San Diego-based early-stage biotech company. In July 1986, Mr. Molloie joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”), and served as an Assurance Partner from October 1997 until June 2020. Mr. Molloie’s primary areas of expertise include mergers and acquisitions, capital transactions, initial and secondary public offerings, private placements, and venture capital. During his time at PwC, Mr. Molloie served as lead partner on many publicly traded and private technology and pharma/life science clients in Philadelphia, China and Southern California and led PwC’s Southern California Pharma/Life Science practice.

Dr. Walden “Wally” C. Rhines is President and CEO of Cornami, Inc. Dr. Rhines previously served as CEO of Mentor Graphics for 23 years and Chairman of its board for 17 years. Prior to joining Mentor Graphics, Dr. Rhines served as Executive Vice President, Semiconductor Group, of Texas Instruments and was responsible for the company’s worldwide semiconductor business. Dr. Rhines serves on the Board of QORVO and has previously served on the Board of Cirrus Logic, TriQuint Semiconductor, Global Logic, PTK Acquisition Corp., and SRC and as Chairman of the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (for five two-year terms). He is a Lifetime Fellow of the IEEE and has served on the Board of Trustees of Lewis and Clark College, the National Advisory Board of the University of Michigan, and Industrial Committees advising Stanford University and the University of Florida. Dr. Rhines received a B.S.E. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Michigan, a M.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, an MBA from Southern Methodist University and Honorary Doctor of Technology degrees from the University of Florida and Nottingham Trent University. In 2021, the Global Semiconductor Alliance honored Dr. Rhines with its prestigious Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award.

Jodi Shelton is the co-founder and CEO of Global Semiconductor Alliance (“GSA”). A pioneer within the technology space, Shelton was instrumental in the creation of the Alliance and has continuously addressed global issues in the industry as the voice of its members. Under Ms. Shelton’s leadership, GSA has grown its membership to include companies throughout the supply chain, representing 45 countries across the globe. She is the key liaison between GSA and the business community at financial and industry conferences, providing insight on key topics pertaining to the global fabless supply chain. Ms. Shelton also co-founded Shelton Group, a strategic investor relations firm in February 1994 and has served as its Chair since its inception. Ms. Shelton earned a B.S. in Political Science from San Diego State and a M.S. in Political Science from the University of Houston. She also received Corporate Governance program certification from Columbia Business School.

“We are pleased to welcome the new board members to the Board,” said Babak Taheri, CEO of Silvaco Group. “This is an exciting time for Silvaco. We have worked diligently to ensure that the Silvaco board and leadership represent a variety of experts within the semiconductor market and the new additions are no exception.”

About Silvaco Group, Inc.

Silvaco is a provider TCAD, EDA software and semiconductor design IP, used for process and device development for advanced semiconductors, power IC, display, memory, and SoC design. Silvaco is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has a global presence with offices located in North America, Europe, Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

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