Movin'On

Prabhakar leaves NIST director post; Allison joins PRI Automation as CFO; de Neve elevated to operations VP at Equipe; Cymer lands four laser scientists

Thomas Armstrong recently resigned as president of the Semiconductor Industry Association in a reported policy dispute. Armstrong joined the trade group in 1983 and became president in September 1985. Daryl Hatano, SIA's vp of international trade and government affairs, has stepped in temporarily until the association finds a permanent replacement. . . . Genus appointed Mary Bobel as executive vp and CFO. Bobel, who spent nine years at Advanced Micro Devices and five years at Adobe Systems, and most recently served as vp and CFO of Educational Publishing, replaces Ernest Quinones at the supplier of deposition and ion implantation gear. Meanwhile, Genus president and CEO James Healy has been appointed to the board of directors of Tyecin Systems. Healy has more than 30 years of experience with ATE equipment. Tyecin makes planning and scheduling software for semiconductor manufacturing.

Arati Prabhakar has left NIST to become senior vp and CTO of Raychem in Menlo Park, CA. Prabhakar was the 10th director of the institute, having been appointed by President Clinton to the Department of Commerce post in 1993. Robert Hebner will serve as acting director. . . . There are new faces in senior executive positions at PRI Automation. The new CFO, Stephen Allison, held the same position at Helix, while Robert Klimm, who replaces Steve Avedikian as vp of operations, was formerly gm of the implant systems division at Eaton. PRI also appointed Dan Peterson vp of sales and marketing and Raymond Sawtelle director of manufacturing.

Quester Technology has named Thomas Galantowicz vp of engineering, replacing Herb Henderson. Galantowicz has more than 25 years of experience in engineering, management, and education. In other appointments, Joseph Ellul becomes the director of process technology, with responsibility for applying the company's TEOS/ozone CVD technology. Promoted to vp of operations is Robert Susie. Before joining Quester, Susie worked for Novellus Systems as director of manufacturing.

In related developments, Novellus appointed a new president of U.S. sales and service operations. Dennis Riccio previously worked 24 years for such companies as Applied Materials, Eaton, and Motorola before being hired by the manufacturer of automated wafer-fabrication systems for thin-film CVD tools. Another new face is Robert Kase, who recently became vp and COO of Nippon Novellus. In this role, Kase will serve as a liaison between the subsidiary and the parent company.

Equipe Technologies promoted Robert de Neve from director of operations to vp of operations. A former project manager at Tencor Instruments, de Neve will oversee all manufacturing operations for the Sunnyvale, CA­based robotics manufacturer. . . . Product quality and development for Asyst Software will be in the hands of Ramesh Balakrishnan, who is the department's new vp for the supplier of SMIF-based technology.

Chris Brodie of Sunnyvale, CA­based Gel-Pak has risen from operations manager to vp of manufacturing, while Monte Laskosky, a former R&D engineer at Stormedia, has joined the vendor of shipping carriers as applications engineer. . . . Paul Proctor left Knights Technology to accept a position with Samsung Austin Semiconductor in Texas as director of manufacturing engineering. . . . The technology director for Extraction Systems is now Oleg Kishkovich, who developed an air-testing service for 0.25-µm lithography for the company's air-chemistry group. The unit is dedicated to monitoring and analyzing airborne molecular contamination.

The engineered systems division of Kinetico appointed Thomas Baker as eastern region sales manager for the company's industrial water treatment systems. In addition, Anne Chasse was recently named western U.S. region account representative for the vendor's high-purity-water recycling systems. . . . Analytical chemist John Lansdown now heads Advanced Delivery & Chemical Systems' expanded research laboratories. While at Motorola, Lansdown supervised the final construction of the chipmaker's multimillion-dollar analytical chemistry lab. ADCS manufactures ultra-high-purity chemicals and delivery systems for CVD and diffusion processes. Lansdown's work there will focus on enhancing analytical techniques for research and production applications.

Cymer's global search for four laser technology scientists resulted in the hiring of Alex Ershov, originally of Moscow and previously employed by Minnesota-based Photran; Thomas Hofmann, who worked for the National Center for Laser Research in the Netherlands; Herve Besaucele of French companies Sopra and Laserdot; and Mengxiong Gong, who spent 14 years working with lasers and semiconductor processes in China and Germany.

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