Nicholas E. Brathwaite, Chief Executive Officer
Nicholas E. Brathwaite is the Chief Executive Officer of Aptina Imaging. He is also a Founding Partner of Riverwood Capital LLC, a private equity firm in Palo Alto, California. Prior to his work at Aptina and Riverwood Capital, Nic was the CTO of Flextronics and spent 13 years managing and leading the development of several products before his retirement in 2007. During this time he also envisioned, founded and developed several successful businesses, including Flextronics’ cell phone ODM, camera module and power supply business units. Many of these have grown into significant businesses with revenues ranging from $200million to $2billion. Additionally, Nic has held various leadership and management roles at nChip where he oversaw wafer fabrication, module assembly and test and Intel Corporation holding various engineering management positions within Technology and Manufacturing.
Mr. Brathwaite has a B.Sc. (Honors) degree in Applied Chemistry, from McMaster University, Canada and a M.Sc. degree in Polymer Science & Engineering, from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Mr. Brathwaite has several patents and has authored more than 50 national and international publications.
Bob Gove, President / Chief Technology Officer
Bob Gove is Aptina Imaging's President and Chief Technology Officer. Bob previously led Micron Technology's imaging business unit, which produced CMOS image sensors for a wide range of applications. Prior to the formation of Micron's Imaging Group in 2001, he was general manager of Micron's NetCom San Jose Design Center, developing embedded DRAM technologies.
Before he joined Micron, Bob served as Vice President of Engineering at Equator Technologies, and Vice President of Engineering at Compression Labs, Inc. He began his career at Texas Instruments, Inc., where he held various positions developing CCD, DSP, and DLP technologies and products. He has been working in semiconductors and related businesses since 1976. Bob earned a BSEE from the University of Washington, and he earned both an MS degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering/computer science from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He holds more than 100 U.S. patents and has been published in 45 technical journals.
Joseph Passarello, Chief Financial Officer
Joseph Passarello is the Chief Financial Officer of Aptina Imaging. Joe has an extensive finance background with over 15 years in senior level finance and accounting positions. Prior to joining Aptina, Joe held the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at AMI Semiconductor (NASDAQ:AMIS). Proceeding this, he was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Therma-Wave, Inc. (NASDAQ:TWAV). Joe has held additional financial leadership positions including Corporate Controller at JDS Uniphase, and Vice President of Finance, US Operations at AML.
Joe holds a master’s degree in business administration from Santa Clara University and a BS in accounting from St. Mary’s College of California.
Sandor Barna, Vice President of Marketing
Sandor Barna is Aptina Imaging's Vice President of Marketing and is responsible for product planning and promotion. Sandor has worked at Micron Technology for six years, during which time his roles included senior director of marketing, director of strategy and planning, and manager of the mobile design team. Sandor joined Micron in November, 2001, with the acquisition of Photobit Corp. At Photobit, he worked as a research scientist, on photogate and global shutter pixels, readout circuitry, and high dynamic range processing before moving into product design. Sandor earned a BS degree in physics from Yale University and an MS degree and PhD in physics, both from Princeton University. He has over 10 years of experience in the CMOS image sensor business, plus another six in photon area detector research, and holds more than 25 CMOS imaging-related patents.
Douglas Cardwell, Chief Legal Counsel
Douglas Cardwell is the Chief Legal Counsel of Aptina Imaging. Douglas has served as Micron Technology's associate general counsel since 2006. Prior to Micron, he was associate general counsel at Affymetrix, Inc, counsel at Davis, Polk & Wardwell, attorney at Fish & Neave (now Ropes & Gray) and judicial clerk to Circuit Judge Raymond C. Clevenger III, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is also a registered patent attorney. Prior to law school, he worked as a researcher in Hitachi Ltd.'s Central Research Laboratory. Douglas earned a BSEE from Cooper Union and an MSEE and a JD, both from Columbia University.
Terry Gilton, Vice President of Technology
Terry Gilton is the Vice President of Technology for Aptina Imaging and is responsible for the research and development of process and imaging technology used in Aptina products. Terry began his career in the semiconductor industry in 1990, when he joined Micron Technology as an engineer in R&D. He held a series of increasingly challenging positions at Micron, including director of product technology for the Micron Imaging Group, where he was responsible for the business unit’s process and pixel research and development. Terry earned a BS in chemistry from the University of Arkansas and a PhD in chemical physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He also holds more than 115 patents in a broad spectrum of technologies.
Vern Klein, Vice President of Sales
Vern Klein is Vice President of Sales, bringing with him more than 20 years of semiconductor sales and marketing experience, 11 of which were focused on imaging products. Vern's previous experience includes positions at Micron Technology, Texas Instruments, LSI Logic, Pixim, and OmniVision—jobs that took him from Texas to North Carolina, Germany, England, and California. He earned both a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA from the University of Iowa.
Jeff Mendiola, Vice President of Operations
Jeff Mendiola is Vice President of Operations and is responsibile for the company's front and back end manufacturing; supply chain definition and management; facilities; and procurement. Jeff has been at Micron Technology for 25 years, holding several management positions in operations, including fab manager for 15 years. Jeff earned an AS degree in electronics and holds eight patents.
Roger Panicacci, Vice President of Product Development
Roger Panicacci is the Vice President of Product Development for Aptina Imaging and is responsible for product design, product engineering, production test, qualification, and application of CMOS imager products. Roger has worked for Micron Technology for six years, joining the company in November, 2001, with the acquisition of Photobit Corp, where he was one of the five founders and held various design positions, including the CTO position. Prior to Photobit's founding, Roger was a member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1994 to 1996 where he was responsible for designing a number of CMOS image sensors for space and commercial applications. He also worked at Eastman Kodak and Delco Systems Operations. He earned a BSEE from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MSEE from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He holds 12 patents in the field of CMOS image sensors and has published more than 10 papers.
