ACADEMIA
Netlist Names Gerard Yeh, Ph.D., as Vice President, Engineering, Research and Development
Netlist announced the appointment of veteran engineering executive Gerard Yeh, Ph.D., as Vice President of Engineering, Research and Development (R&D), effective immediately. In this position, Dr. Yeh will be responsible for all engineering and silicon development-related R&D activities at Netlist, including next generation HyperCloud memory chip and module design activity.
Dr. Yeh has a strong record of innovation (a holder of 11 patents) and has more than 20 years of engineering management and electronic product development experience including System-on-Chip signal integrity and high-speed areas. Prior to joining Netlist, Dr. Yeh spent fourteen years leading TV product development teams and programs at Zoran Corporation, Oak Technology Inc., and TeraLogic, Inc. At Zoran, he was responsible for three TV product lines, TV-on-a-chip controller, video frame rate converter and video intellectual property (IP) licensing. Dr. Yeh has held several executive positions including Vice President of Digital Television VLSI Engineering. Prior to that, he worked at the LSI Logic Corporation and Apple Computer.
Dr. Yeh earned a Ph.D. and master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.
"Gerard brings deep and diverse semiconductor design experience as well as management expertise to Netlist that will be invaluable as we continue to invest in R&D and create next generation high-performance memory chip solutions," CEO C.K. Hong said. "He is an innovator and a proven leader in the semiconductor industry with a successful track record for product design, development and engineering execution. We welcome Gerard to our executive management team."
As an inducement material to Dr. Yeh entering into employment with Netlist, options to purchase up to 150,000 shares of its common stock were granted at a $2.98 per share, which is equal to the closing price of Netlist's stock on the date of approval of the option grants by the Board of Directors. The options have a term of ten (10) years and will generally be forfeited if not exercised before the expiration of the term. One-fourth of the options vest on January 20, 2013, and the remainder vests thereafter in twelve equal quarterly installments, so that the options are vested in full on January 20, 2016.