Board of Directors

K.C. Murphy – President and CEO, Co-Founder

K.C. is a semiconductor industry veteran with more than 25 years experience. His professional career spans more than two decades spent with some of the industry's premier companies including Advanced Micro Devices, Cadence Design Systems and Broadcom. Prior to NextIO, K.C. was an Executive Officer of Broadcom and the VP/GM of Broadcom's RF and Advanced Mixed Signal Group. K.C. joined Broadcom via Broadcom's acquisition of Pivotal Technologies, a successful semiconductor startup in Pasadena, CA, where he served as President and CEO. Before Pivotal Technologies, K.C. was Executive Vice President, Strategic Business Group and Corporate Strategy, at Cadence Design Systems. K.C. joined Cadence after many years at AMD where he held several positions, his last being Vice President, Corporate Strategy and PC Systems. KC received his BSEE degree from MIT.

George Ugras – Adams Capital Management

George joined Adams Capital Management in 1999 as a General Partner, after spending a year as an investment professional at Apax Partners, a private equity firm in New York. Prior to joining Apax Partners, George spent four years as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Co. in New York, working closely with clients in the telecommunications and media industries, on strategic and operational issues. George makes investments in and works with portfolio companies in the telecommunications, networking, and semiconductor industries.

Wayne Cantwell – Crescendo Ventures

Wayne joined Crescendo Ventures in early 2003 after spending nearly 20 years in the semiconductor and SIP industries. Immediately prior to Crescendo, Wayne served as President and CEO of inSilicon Corporation where he led the company through an IPO and several successful acquisitions. Before assuming the role of CEO at inSilicon, Wayne was responsible for overseeing Phoenix Technologies' worldwide field operations where he grew the organization to over 400 people and $125 million in globally distributed business. Wayne has extensive international experience, having run operations in Japan, Taiwan, and Europe but has spent most of the last seven years based in the Bay Area. Prior to his role with Phoenix Technologies, Wayne held various sales and engineering positions with Intel Corporation and NEC Corporation. At Crescendo, Wayne is focused on working with companies in the semiconductor, SIP and technical software arenas as well as providing operational experience and support to Crescendo's portfolio companies.

Rick Marz

Rick Marz is an industry veteran from the Communications, Consumer, and Storage industries. Rick was responsible for the development and coordination of LSI Logic's global customer, channel, product and technology strategies in the company's target markets, including Communications, Consumer and Storage Components. Previously, Marz was LSI Logic's executive vice president of ASIC Technology, overseeing the company's ASIC design methodology, technology marketing and global design center resources. Earlier, Marz served as LSI Logic's executive vice president of Geographic Markets, managing the company's worldwide sales, distribution, ASIC design and Mint Technology activities. Prior to joining LSI Logic in 1995, he was vice president of Sales and Marketing for the Americas for Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Marz received his bachelor of science degree in Industrial Management from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1966.

Chris Pettey – CTO, Co-Founder

Chris has more than 15 years of experience delivering high-performance I/O silicon and system solutions for PC and Server products. Prior to co-founding NextIO, Chris was co founder, CTO and member of the Board of Banderacom, a semiconductor startup company focused on the development and delivery of Infiniband products. Before Banderacom, Chris held the role of chip architect and designer for Jato Technologies, a privately held semiconductor company that delivered Gigabit Ethernet solutions. Chris joined Jato Technologies after several years at Compaq (now part of HP) where he held a variety of engineering roles developing silicon and standards for server I/O. Chris began his career with NCR Corporation. Chris holds a BSEE degree from the University of Central Florida.

Ron Eller

Ron Eller has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ascent Solar Technologies Inc. since March 31, 2011. Mr. Eller has extensive senior executive experience in fast growing technology businesses, including strategy, product development, operations, sales and business development and commercialization of emerging applications. He has served as an independent director of Ascent since June 2009. He has been an owner, principal or managing director in various private equity firms since 2008. From 1994 until March 2008, Mr. Eller held various senior executive positions at Hewlett-Packard Company, an integrated technology firm, including Vice President and General Manager of the NetServer business from 2002 to 2003 and, more recently, Vice President and General Manager of the software and system integrator channels of the Technology Solutions Group. Mr. Eller has served on the board of the Colorado Neurological Institute since April 2009 and is a certified public accountant. He holds a B.S. degree in Professional Aviation from Purdue University, and an M.S. degree in Business from Colorado State University.

Peter S. Kastner

Peter has more than 40 years of IT industry experience in both user and supplier organizations. He co-founded the IT market research company Aberdeen Group in 1988, serving as Executive VP, COO and Chief Research Officer and on the Board through its sale to Harte-Hanks in 2006. In 2003-2007, he led Aberdeen's enterprise computing group, including servers, storage, and networking. Kastner was a marketing executive at Digital Equipment, Prime Computer, and Stratus Computer. For more than a decade, Kastner was a consultant and program manager with Arthur D. Little Inc., where he managed the execution of complex enterprise technology-development projects. He is an active private investor.