Silex Microsystems Names Gary Johnson as Chief Executive Officer

JARFALLA, Sweden and BOSTON, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Silex Microsystems, a leading pure-play foundry for MEMS, today announced the appointment of Gary Johnson as chief executive officer.  Mr. Johnson is a Silicon Valley veteran, with 20-years experience driving large and small companies to accelerate their revenue growth and to establish leadership positions in fast-growing markets.  Formerly CEO of PortalPlayer, Inc. and S3, Inc., Mr. Johnson is renowned for his ability to create defensible and early mover strategies that create significant value for customers, employees and shareholders.

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"As a well-known Silicon Valley Veteran, Gary has proven experience driving companies to their next level of growth and global success," said Lennart Jacobsson, senior partner at CapMan Plc and Silex Microsystems board member. "We believe his leadership skills will enable Silex to further expand the high-volume shipments they are delivering today to become one of the largest and technology-advanced pure-play MEMS foundries in the world."

Most recently, Mr. Johnson was Chairman of Marwood Technology where he provided strategic advisory services to a variety of US & European Venture Capital firms, and also to a number of their respective portfolio companies.  Before that, Mr. Johnson was the president and CEO of PortalPlayer Inc., the leading supplier of low-power application processors for personal media players including the first Apple iPods.  He led PortalPlayer through a highly successful IPO on NASDAQ in 2004 and later merged the company with NVIDIA.  Previously, Johnson was CEO of S3 Inc., a publicly-traded company on NASDAQ that became an industry-leading manufacturer of multimedia semiconductors. During Gary's tenure at S3, the company established a successful joint venture foundry with UMC in Taiwan.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Johnson spent 7 years at National Semiconductor where he founded two wireless business units.  He started his career at British Telecom Research Laboratories at Martlesham Heath in the UK.

Mr. Johnson replaces Mr. Jan Nerdal who held the position of CEO since 2002 and will retire mid-year.  During Mr. Nerdal's tenure, Silex Microsystems grew from a small lab-based start-up to its current position as a leading manufacturer of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) on an industrial scale, with leading customers in Europe, United States and Asia.

"Silex has done an impressive job ramping from a small start-up to a high-volume MEMS foundry with a strong technology portfolio and an outstanding reputation in the industry," said Johan Siberg, chairman of the board for Silex Microsystems.  "I want to thank Jan for his tremendous contributions in bringing the company to this solid market position and we wish him much success in his future endeavors."

MEMS are complex mechanical and electrical systems built in micro scale on one single chip.  This market is credited with driving innovation in everyday applications and represents tremendous growth opportunities for pure play foundries such as Silex Microsystems.  According to a recent report by iSuppli, the MEMS market is expected to grow by 11.1% to 6.5 billion in 2010 and as a leading supplier with strong IP and proven technology, Silex Microsystems is well positioned for future expansion.

"I look forward to working with the entire Silex team and capitalizing on the incredible technology and world-class customer base that Silex has developed over the past ten years," said Gary Johnson, CEO of Silex Microsystems.   "With the company's core technology platforms and applicability across a broad and diverse set of markets, Silex is well positioned for strong growth."

About Silex Microsystems

Silex Microsystems is a world leading pure-play MEMS foundry providing manufacturing capacity, advanced process technologies and proven standard process platforms to a wide range of high-tech companies. The company's yearly-managed capacity exceeds 50 thousand 6-inch wafers and 100 thousand 8-inch wafers. For more information, please visit www.silexmicrosystems.com.

SOURCE Silex Microsystems