Leadership

John Bennice

Vice-President, Sales & Business Development

John Bennice is currently Director of Account Technology Management for Mentor Graphics (Calypto Division), driving the growth of the Catapult (High level Synthesis) and PowerPro (RTL Power estimation and Optimization) technologies into the Semiconductor Design space. John is an EDA veteran in the sector, working with Semiconductor design companies since 1992.

Bennice has held notable positions such as Vice President of Sales for Calypto Design Systems, Kilopass and Barcelona Design Systems. Bennice also ran Global Account Sales in Japan while working for Synopsys in their NSKK org residing in Tokyo. He managed over $100M of annual business in the 1999-2000 timeframe, growing the business 30% YOY in a difficult time for Japanese semiconductor companies.

Since 2000 John has worked for 6 startup companies in the Semiconductor design/IP space :

● Barcelona Design – Analog Synthesis
● Sabio Labs – Analog Optimization (acquired by Magma))
● Obsidian Software - (Acquired by ARM)
● Kilopass - nonvolatile memory (acquired by Synopsys) ● Suvolta – process/device optimization
● Calypto – HLS/RTL power analysis (acquired by Mentor Graphics)

Bennice’s career has spanned broadly across the Semiconductor design*(EDA) software sector. John understands the semiconductor design business and has a knack for resonating with customers to get to the bottom line so business can be closed positively for both sides.

Bennice was born and raised in upstate New York and graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering specializing in Energy Systems/Power Plant Design.

Robert Csongor

Advisory Board Member, Business Strategy, Execution

Rob Csongor is a forty-year technology veteran, most of it spent working as a technology executive in Silicon Valley for NVIDIA. He is one of the original employees of NVIDIA Corporation, joining the company in 1995 with 20 employees and no product or revenue, to launch NVIDIA’s first product, NV1. When he recently retired from NVIDIA in 2020, NVIDIA had grown to a market cap of $350 billion, with close to 20,000 employees worldwide, and a $20 billion revenue run rate. In his time at NVIDIA, Rob held numerous technical and business roles as a member of NVIDIA’s executive staff, reporting directly to Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, ranked recently as the #1 CEO in the world by Harvard Business Review.

Csongor served in a variety of positions at NVIDIA, primarily as Vice-President and General Manager, starting and growing new NVIDIA businesses including NVIDIA’s GPU notebook, embedded, and automotive businesses, focusing on artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. He also served four years as NVIDIA’s corporate vice-president of worldwide marketing, as well as three years heading up NVIDIA’s investor relations group to better educate wall street on NVIDIA’s strategies and technology. Altogether, Rob has worked for close to forty years in the GPU computing, artificial intelligence, minicomputer and personal computer industry at companies including NVIDIA, Adaptec, and other computer companies.

Csongor testified in 2017 as an expert witness to the United States Senate subcommittee in Washington DC on Accelerating Self-Driving Technologies and Artificial Intelligence. He has spoken at numerous worldwide industry conferences and seminars on a wide variety of technical and business topics ranging from visual computing, GPU computing to advancing AI solutions for robotics and self-driving cars.

Csongor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University.

Loris Valenti

Advisory Board Member, Business Development, Sales Strategy

Loris Valenti is Vice President of Microcontrollers and Digital Products for STMicroelectronics’ Americas region. A 20-year industry veteran, Valenti started his career as a digital design engineer at Italtel, a telecom infrastructure company in Italy, and has held several positions of increasing responsibility in design and R&D. He reached the role of R&D director in 2004 and was promoted to the role of vice president and general manager for the digital ASICs products division in 2007. In 2019, Valenti was promoted to the VP position for Microcontrollers and Digital Products in the Americas, based in Santa Clara, CA.

Valenti has been a major contributor in the development of new business segments and a key driver in the digital products of STMicroelectronics. His experience, strong relationships with key accounts, and deep knowledge of the market makes him a recognized name in the industry. Valenti was born in Milan (Italy) and graduated with a degree in Physics from the University of Milan (Italy) in 1991.

Dr. Muneer Muhamed

Managing Director, Rezonent Microchips Pvt Ltd India

Dr Muneer has over 25 years of management experience across industries globally and is a well-known author and management consultant. As the CEO and Managing Director of CustomerLab Solutions, an innovative management consulting firm in partnership with some of the finest thought leaders in the world, he pioneered the implementation and proliferation of balanced scorecards in India and Middle East. Most recently he is a strategic partner at Mach49, a Silicon Valley-based company helping large companies disrupt inside out (www.mach49.com). He has worked with clients like Massmutual, Aditya Birla Group, TVS, Dubal, Wipro, Murugappa, LMW, Reliance Group, Cognizant and many others. He has a Bachelors in Technology (Electronics), Post Graduate Degree in Business Management in marketing and finance and holds a PhD in strategy management. He has won several awards including the World HR Congress' Strategic Leadership Award and the Margadarshi Award for Innovation.

Dr. ARUL SUBBIAH

Broadcomm Corporation

Dr. Riadul Islam

Professor
University of Maryland Baltimore County

Dr. Nam Ling

Chair Computer Science Dept.
Santa Clara University