Transphorm, Inc. - Management

Management

Primit Parikh, Ph.D.

Co-founder, President & CEO

Primit Parikh, Ph.D.

Co-founder, President & CEO

Primit is the President and CEO of Transphorm, a pioneer and leader in GaN power semiconductors. Having led Transphorm to a public company listing in partnership with its phenomenal team, he is passionate about creating value from the intersection of business and technology. With over 20 years of semiconductor and entrepreneurial experience, his background includes capital raises, international markets and strategic partnerships, key customer relationships, products and manufacturing, IP, GaN semiconductor technology, and government contracting. Prior to co-founding Transphorm, Primit led GaN electronics at Nitres Inc. through its acquisition by Cree, where he served as the head of Advanced Technology at Cree SBTC in charge of GaN development and government business. Primit received his B.Tech. in EE from IIT, Mumbai and his Ph.D. in ECE from UCSB. He has been awarded more than 40 patents and has co-authored more than 75 publications and presentations. He is blessed to reside in the amazing Santa Barbara area with his wonderful family.
Umesh Mishra, Ph.D.

CTO & Co-Founder

Umesh Mishra, Ph.D.

CTO & Co-Founder

Umesh is responsible for the strategic direction of Transphorm, as well as customer relationships and technology. Prior to co-founding Transphorm in 2007, Umesh co-founded Nitres Inc. in 1996 - the first company to develop GaN LEDs and transistors. Nitres was acquired by Cree in 2000. Umesh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009 and received the IEEE David Sarnoff Award for "The Development of Gallium Nitride Electronics". He is also Professor Above-Scale (the highest academic rank in the University of California system) in the ECE Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he has been a director of several GaN research centers.
Cameron McAulay

CFO

Cameron McAulay

CFO

As Chief Financial Officer, Cameron is responsible for overseeing all financial aspects of the company. Prior to joining Transphorm, he served as Finance Director, Global Customer Organization and Director of Internal Audit with KLA-Tencor Corporation. He also served as Finance Director and Group Financial Controller at Atmel Corporation and had a 7 year tenure at National Semiconductor Corporation in a variety of Operational and Corporate leadership positions including Chief Audit Executive. He holds a BSc. Mathematics, Statistics and Accountancy from Strathclyde University and is a member of the Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
Philip Zuk

Senior Vice President, Business Development and Marketing

Philip Zuk

Senior Vice President, Business Development and Marketing

Philip leads technical marketing effort for Transphorm's high voltage GaN FET technology in high power applications. He worked previously for Vishay (Siliconix) heading up their high voltage superjunction technology, Microsemi PPG running marketing efforts on their high voltage MOSFET, FRED diodes, IGBTs, and SiC efforts, Medallion Instrumentation Systems and Fairchild Semiconductor. He has expertise in power supply designed systems and applications, high power semiconductor devices, micro-controller based systems, RFID, and project management. He holds a MBA (Hons) from I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, University of Manitoba, and an Electronic Engineering Technology Associate Degree, Red River College. He holds 2 US patents a trade secret and has authored many technical and application papers.
Tushar Dhayagude

Vice President of Worldwide Sales

Tushar Dhayagude

Vice President of Worldwide Sales

Tushar Dhayagude is the VP of Field Applications and Technical Sales at Transphorm Inc. Prior to joining Transphorm, he was the CEO of GV Semiconductor Inc. from 2016 to 2020 where he focused on developing GaN-on-Silicon power HEMTs, controllers and power systems. He previously worked as the Marketing Director of Atmel’s digital power and LED lighting segments for six years. In 2006, he co-founded and worked as VP of Sales and Marketing for mSilica, a mixed-signal IC company developing LED drivers for LCD-TV and notebook backlighting. And, he held marketing management positions at National Semiconductor and Maxim as well as semiconductor fab process and device integration engineering roles at National Semiconductor and IDT. Tushar holds 10 patents as well as an MBA & MEM from Northwestern University and MSEE from University of Arkansas.
Randy Berg

Human Resources Leader

Randy Berg

Human Resources Leader

Randy leads the company’s efforts supporting a workplace that fosters innovation and engagement. He brings 25 years of experience to the team including leadership of critical initiatives in wafer fab oriented operations when the data storage industry was expanding and changing at a torrid pace. His HR career spans a variety of challenging technical industries including data storage, telecom, defense, staffing, and most recently in the very dynamic and evolving LED technology space. Randy’s education includes an MS in Social Science from Azusa Pacific University and a BA in Communication from Biola University.
Likun hen

Vice President of Engineering

Likun hen

Vice President of Engineering

A 15-year Transphorm veteran, has been appointed to Vice President of Engineering. He has previously served in a device and product engineering leadership capacity as well as a Senior Member of Technical staff. His work has contributed heavily to the design, fabrication, characterization, and qualification of Transphorm’s GaN platform and derivative products. Notably, he led an initiative responsible for improving manufacturing yields while supporting reliability improvement efforts among others. Early in his career, Likun earned his Ph.D. on GaN devices and held the role of Assistant Project Scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) working directly with Transphorm’s co-founder and CTO Umesh Mishra.
Sal Barlett

Senior Vice President, Operations

Sal Barlett

Senior Vice President, Operations

For nearly three decades, Sal worked for onsemi where he most recently led the global capacity, capital planning, and strategy teams. His leadership there enabled the company to more than double its multi-billion-dollar annual revenue. Additionally, among other achievements, he acted as operations leader for various factory acquisitions and divestitures transacted during his tenure. His responsibilities called for consistent exploration and deep analysis of operational needs followed by the development and implementation of processes and supply solutions fundamental to corporate growth.