Executive Management
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Ralph Schmitt | President & CEO |
| Lawrence Chisvin | Chief Operating Officer |
| Art Whipple | Chief Financial Officer |
| David K. Raun | Vice President of Marketing & Business Development |
| Gene Schaeffer | Vice President of Worldwide Sales |
| Michael Grubisich | Vice President of Operations |
| Vijay Meduri | Vice President of Engineering, Switching |
| Sridhar Begur | Vice President Engineering, PHY |
| John Dring | Vice President Engineering, Architecture and Applications, PHY |
Ralph Schmitt was appointed president and CEO in November 2008. During 2008 he consulted with a variety of venture capitalists, as well as acted as chief executive officer of Legend Silicon, a privately funded Chinese terrestrial digital TV semiconductor company. From 2005 thru 2007, he was chief executive officer of Sipex, an analog semiconductor company, which merged with Exar in 2007 where he was appointed chief executive officer. From 1999 to 2005 Schmitt was executive vice president of sales, marketing and business development for Cypress Semiconductor where he led sales growth to more than $1 billion and oversaw the acquisition and integration of numerous companies. Schmitt has also served on the boards at Cypress subsidiaries and other privately held semiconductor and systems companies. He began his career as a systems hardware designer and received his BSEE from Rutgers University.
Lawrence Chisvin was appointed Chief Operating Officer in August 2004,
having served as Vice President, Marketing since May 2000. From September 1998 through May 2000,
Mr. Chisvin was employed by Neomagic, a semiconductor company, as Director of Marketing.
From May 1996 through September 1998, Mr. Chisvin was employed by LSI Logic, a semiconductor company,
as Director of Marketing. Prior to LSI Logic, Mr. Chisvin was employed in a variety of marketing and
engineering positions at S3, Phillips, Western Digital, and Digital Equipment Corporation. Mr. Chisvin
received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and an M.S. in Electrical
Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Art Whipple joined PLX Technology as Chief Financial Officer in January
of 2007. Prior to PLX, he was VP of finance, CFO and secretary at Silicon Storage Technology, Inc. He was
previously with QuickLogic Corp., where he served initially as its VP of finance, CFO and secretary, then
as VP and GM of its logic products business unit. Prior to QuickLogic, he was VP of engineering for ILC
Technology, and also as vice president of finance and operations of its subsidiary, Precision Lamp. Earlier
in his career, Whipple served in financial and engineering roles at other semiconductor manufacturing
companies, including Westinghouse Electric, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Monolithic Memories. He holds
a bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington, and a master's
degree in business administration from Santa Clara University.
David Raun joined PLX Technology in November 2004 as Vice President, Marketing. In May 2007 his role
was expanded to include VP of Business Development. From January 2002 through November 2004, he was Vice President
of Marketing at Pericom Semiconductor. In 2001, Mr. Raun was Executive Vice President & General Manager at Actovate.
Prior to Actovate he held several executive positions at Waferscale Integration, Inc., including Vice President of PSD & Memory
Products ('97-'00), Vice President of Sales ('96-'97), and Director of Sales ('94-'96). From 1985 to 1995,
Mr. Raun held other sales, sales management, and marketing positions at Waferscale and AMD. He holds a
B.S.E.E. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Gene Schaeffer was appointed PLX Vice President Worldwide Sales in February 2009. A veteran of the semiconductor industry, Schaeffer has over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing leadership positions, with a proven track record in developing multiple strategic accounts in markets such as computing, consumer, and networking. During 2008 he served as Vice President of Sales & Marketing at PulseCore Semiconductor, a privately funded company specializing in EMI suppression. From 2006 thru 2008, he was Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Sipex, an analog semiconductor company, which merged with Exar in 2007 where he was appointed Vice President Worldwide Sales. From 1998 to 2006, Schaeffer held positions of increasing responsibility in sales management at Cypress Semiconductor including Director of Strategic Accounts, Vice President of Americas Sales, and Vice President of Channel Sales. Schaeffer began his semiconductor career in distribution, and spent eight years as a manufacturer's representative.
Michael Grubisich was appointed vice president of operations in September 2008, having served as director of product & test
engineering at PLX since April 2007. Prior to PLX, Mike worked 12 years at Sun Microsystems in various advanced technology and
engineering operations management positions involving CPU, ASIC, & ASSP products. Mike spent 10 years at National Semiconductor
in technical capacities involving device architecture, device modeling, process development and product engineering. He also spent
4 years at Digital Equipment Corporation responsible for the evaluation of advanced IC technologies for use in DEC's high-end
systems. Mike has several patents in the area of device architecture and silicon processing. He holds a Bachelor of Science in
Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.
Vijay Meduri was appointed vice president of engineering in September 2008, having served as Director of Design
Engineering at PLX since 2004. He has over 16 years of experience in the chip industry having led numerous high profile projects at
various companies. At PLX, he led the development of the PCI Express product line from its inception in 2002. Prior to PLX he led the
development of the industry's first PCI switched fabric at Sebring Networks (acquired by PLX). He worked as a consultant at Sun Microsystems
and other companies and was the founder of an EDA company that successfully sold its technology. He started his career at LSI Logic.
He holds an MSEE from the University of Cincinnati where he did research work in Hardware Description Languages.
Sridhar Begur was appointed VP of PHY Engineering in September 2010 following the acquisition of Teranetics where he also held that post. He brings more than 20 years of experience in the design of complex integrated circuits and has contributed a number of successful products including multimedia processors for PCs and the industry's first MIMO based wireless LAN (802.11 a/b/g) ASIC. Prior to Teranetics, Sridhar worked at Airgo Networks leading their WLAN ASIC development. Before Airgo, Sridhar held senior positions at Diamond Multimedia, Media Vision, Chips and Technologies, HP and Intel where he managed a variety of IC designs. He has seven patents issued or pending. Sridhar holds a B.S. from Bangalore University and a M.S. from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, both in Electrical Engineering.
John Dring was appointed VP of Engineering for PHY Architectures and Applications in September 2010 following the acquisition of Teranetics where he was the Senior Director of that group. John has more than 15 years of experience in bringing complex silicon based products to market by leveraging his unique knowledge and experience in silicon, signal processing, and software. John is an expert at architecting highly complicated algorithms in a cost and power efficient manner that enables widespread use of cutting edge technology. Previously at Intel, John was the key architect involved in bringing WiMAX technology to market by architecting and designing Intel's first commercially available WiMAX silicon product. John earlier led the development of key parts of the modem design at Iospan Wireless, helping to develop the first MIMO OFDM PHY for wireless metropolitan area access. Prior to Iospan Wireless, John held key positions at Stanford Telecom and FMC. John has authored several patents and has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.