Primit Parikh, Ph.D.
Co-founder, President & CEO

Umesh Mishra, Ph.D.
CTO & Co-Founder

Umesh serves as Transphorm's CTO and Board Chair. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the company, 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

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 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 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 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 Shen
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

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.

Primit Parikh, Ph.D.
Board Member

Umesh Mishra, Ph.D.
Chair of The Board

Umesh serves as Transphorm's CTO and Board Chair. He is responsible for the strategic direction of the company, 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.

Eiji Yatagawa
KKR Japan

Eiji Yatagawa joined KKR in 2006 and is a Member on the Private Equity team. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Yatagawa was an associate in Goldman Sachs & Co.’s investment banking team from 2002 to 2006. Mr. Yatagawa currently serves on the board of directors of several privately-held companies. He holds a B.S. in Mathematical Engineering and an M.S. in Mathematical Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

Julian Humphreys
Sr. Executive Leader - Formerly at Phillips/NXP/Nexperia

Julian Humphreys has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, including 20 years specifically with power semiconductors. From February 2017 to April 2019, Dr. Humphreys was a senior vice president and general manager at Nexperia B.V. From June 2010 to January 2017, Dr. Humphreys was a vice president and general manager with Nexperia’s predecessor, the NXP Semiconductors Standard Products Division of NXP Semiconductors N.V. Dr. Humphreys was also the managing director of Nexperia UK Ltd., and its predecessor entity NXP Semiconductors UK Ltd., from September 2011 to March 2019. He holds a B.Eng. degree in electronics and a Ph.D. in semiconductor physics, both from the University of Liverpool.

Katharina McFarland
Lead Independent Director

With over 30 years of government service, Katharina McFarland is widely recognized as a leading subject-matter expert on government procurement. Ms. McFarland has served as the president of Blue Oryx Inc., a consulting services firm, since January 2017. She serves as Chair of the Board of Army Research and Development at the National Academies of Science and as a director of Virgin Orbit Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: VORB), Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAIC), the Procurement Round Table, and Exyn Technologies. Ms. McFarland was a director of Engility Holdings, Inc. from June 2017 until its acquisition by SAIC in January 2019. Ms. McFarland also serves on the Advisory Boards of Anduril Industries, Cypress International Senior Strategy Group, and Sehlke Consulting. She was previously the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition (2012 to 2017) and acting Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics & Technology) (2016 to 2017). She was President of the Defense Acquisition University from 2010 to 2012, and Director of Acquisition, Missile Defense Agency from 2006 to 2010. Ms. McFarland is an accredited Materials, Mechanical, Civil and Electronics Engineer. She has received the Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the Department of the Navy Civilian Tester of the Year Award, and the Navy and United States Marine Corps Commendation Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service. Ms. McFarland brings substantial experience with the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Army, and Intelligence Community procurement with a focus on Space applications, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber, and IT technologies in defense acquisition, program management, logistics and technology. Ms. McFarland holds a B.Sc. degree in engineering from Queen’s University, a master’s degree in program management from the Program Management Institute, and an honorary doctoral degree in engineering from Cranfield University.

Kelly Smales
Former CFO at KnuEdge, Inc. (formerly Intellisis)

Kelly Smales has over 30 years of experience working as a certified public accountant, including with multiple semiconductor companies. From May 2015 to March 2017, she was the chief financial officer at KnuEdge Inc. (formerly Intellisis), a machine learning hardware and software company. From November 2011 to May 2015, Ms. Smales was the chief financial officer for Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions Inc., a semiconductor manufacturing start-up company. Ms. Smales holds a B.S. degree in accounting from Arizona State University and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Chicago.

Cindi Moreland
Senior Vice President, General Counsel at Care.com

Cynthia (Cindi) Moreland has over 30 years of experience working as an attorney within the technical field, including fifteen years as a general counsel, and over 20 years as a chief compliance officer. Since April 2021, she has served as the general counsel of Care.com, an online marketplace for various care services and a subsidiary of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IAC). From March 2017 to April 2021, Ms. Moreland served as senior vice president and general counsel for IAC Applications, an operating business within IAC/InterActiveCorp that included the Mosaic Group, the mobile application division of IAC/InterActiveCorp. From February 2016 to March 2017, she served as an independent strategic advisor to various law firm and business clients. Ms. Moreland holds a B.A. degree in English as well as a J.D. from the University of Mississippi.