Semiconductor Vendor Chooses New President

Apr 13, 2005 5:38 PM

Fairchild Semiconductor has appointed Dr. Mark Thompson as president and CEO. Thompson, who will also become a member of the Fairchild Semiconductor board of directors, will succeed founding President and CEO Kirk Pond effective as of the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on May 4. Pond will remain chairman of the board. Thompson currently serves as Fairchild’s executive vice president of its Manufacturing and Technology Group.

“I’m pleased the board is moving forward with the final stage of our existing succession plan by appointing Mark Thompson to lead the company into its next phase of growth,” said Pond. “We’ve transformed the company into the leading supplier of semiconductors to optimize system power while building one of the most cost-effective and skilled manufacturing operations in the industry. Mark is the right person to now accelerate the company’s next evolution, focusing on developing higher margin, more complex products to increase growth and deliver superior financial performance.

“Mark served as the vice president, and previously the technical director, of the Electronics OEM Group at Raychem Corp. prior to its acquisition by Tyco. At Tyco, he ran the company’s Power Components Division, doubling its revenues in less than three years through acquisitions and internal growth. Mark has successfully negotiated acquisitions both as a buyer and a seller, delivering immediately accretive results while executing complex integration plans. He also directed Tyco’s global, high-volume electronic components manufacturing network. In his last position as president and CEO of Big Bear Networks, he evidenced his technology leadership in the company’s portfolio of patented next-generation integrated circuits that enable previously unattainable levels of transmission for many types of high speed networks.” said Pond.

Thompson holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina and a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York.

Pond led the team responsible for completing the industry’s first management-led leveraged buyout when Fairchild emerged from National Semiconductor in 1997. Pond, reflecting on his eight years leading Fairchild said, “We’ve grown from approximately $600 million in sales to $1.6 billion in revenues last year, with 73% of those revenues generated by our targeted power market. We identified the power electronics market opportunity early on—anticipated to be a $28 billion business by 2008—and focused the company globally to capture significant market share.”

For more information, visit www.fairchildsemi.com.

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