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2024 Semi Industry Forum: GenAI + Semiconductors + Humanity
November 13 @ 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
GenAI + Semiconductors + Humanity:
History in the Making
From 5:15 until 6pm, Silicon Catalyst has arranged special access for Forum attendees only to the Museum exhibition area (ground floor)
The world we live in is at a major inflection point, as the symbiotic relationship between generative AI and semiconductors will impact society for generations to come. The tremendous advances in semiconductor technology have resulted in an explosion of new applications and business opportunities for artificial intelligence. The resulting development and ubiquitous deployment of AI is driving the need for further semiconductor innovation, in concert with environmental goals. Most importantly, and hopefully in parallel, it will also drive the establishment of guardrails to further improve our AI-centric safety.
Technologists and investors, along with government policy makers, are grappling with the daunting challenges arising from the rapidly evolving development and deployment of artificial intelligence technology. The challenge in front of “all of us” is to maximize the key beneficial aspects of AI, while ensuring the safe use of AI in all aspects of our industries, businesses, our lives and the planet.
With this as the backdrop, Silicon Catalyst invites you to join our Forum at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Our esteemed panel of experts will discuss AI’s technical and business opportunities, as well as the public and private policy initiatives to safely address the challenges ahead.
Moderator: David French CEO, SigmaSense and Board Member, Silicon Catalyst
Panel Members:
- Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner, Mayfield
- Justina Gallegos, Deputy Director for Industrial Innovation, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy
- Chloe Ma, VP of IoT Line of Business / GTM China, Arm
David French
CEO, SigmaSense and Board Member, Silicon Catalyst
Mr. French’s career has been built around a very broad set of experiences in virtually all aspects of research, design, manufacturing, marketing and business management within the semiconductor industry. He is perhaps best known for his nearly twenty-year focus on the proliferation of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology and solutions in leading successful initiatives at Texas Instruments and later Analog Devices. In addition, he spearheaded the transition of Cirrus Logic’s business as its CEO, from a supplier of logic chips into personal computers to become a profitable industry leader in mixed signal audio components and solutions. More recently Mr. French contributed to the financial success of NXP Semiconductors as Executive Vice President of its Mobile and Computing Business Unit and later working on numerous fruitful business divestitures in China. He currently is focused on another application of digital signal processing and high precision sensing technology as the CEO of SigmaSense, LLC, an innovator and leader in AI-enabled touch controllers.
Mr. French has demonstrated a constant emphasis on coaching and development of some of the industry’s leading technologists as they have brought their ideas from early formulation to dramatic growth and financial success. With a longstanding presence since 2001 in the China semiconductor marketplace as an investor, advisor, hands on manager and board director, he successfully launched Gaozhan Microelectronics Management Consulting Company and a technology development and incubation center in China, with an early focus on semiconductors for power electronics applications.
Navin Chaddha
Managing Partner, Mayfield
Navin leads Mayfield as Managing Partner. Under his leadership, Mayfield has raised eight U.S. funds and guided over 80 companies topositive outcomes. He has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and has ranked on the Forbes Midas List of Top 100 Tech Investors sixteen times, including being named in the Top Five in 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Navin’s investments have created over $120 billion in equity value and over 40,000 jobs.
During his venture capital career, Navin invested in over 60 companies, of which 18 have gone public and 27 have been acquired. Navin was one of the earliest Silicon Valley investors to leverage the promise of tech in India. He is Vice Chair of the Stanford Engineering Venture Fund and advisor to Neythri.org. Navin is an active philanthropist who supports education, diversity, equity, inclusion, and food scarcity groups. He serves on the board for Him for Her, a social impact venture aimed at accelerating diversity on corporate boards.
As an entrepreneur, Navin has co-founded or led three startups including VXtreme: a streaming media platform, acquired by Microsoft to become Windows Media; Rivio/CPA.com: a SaaS provider for small businesses, and iBeam Broadcasting (NASDAQ:IBEM): a streaming media content delivery network. Navin holds an MS degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and a B.Tech degree in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi, where he was honored with the distinguished IIT Alumni Award.
Justina Gallegos
Deputy Director for Industrial Innovation, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Justina Gallegos serves as the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), leading a new Industrial Innovation division. Core to the Biden-Harris Administration’s economic agenda is an ambitious industrial strategy to rebuild U.S. manufacturing and re-shore supply chains, achieve the nation’s net-zero greenhouse gas goals, create place-based ecosystems that support high-quality jobs, and bolster national security. Gallegos leads efforts focused on advancing innovative technologies and strengthening critical industrial bases. Prior to her current role, Gallegos served at the National Economic Council as Senior Advisor on Climate Finance. She previously served in the Obama Administration White House and Treasury Department, and has private sector experience as a venture capitalist and technologist. Gallegos received her BA from Middlebury College, and her MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Chloe Ma
VP of IoT Line of Business / GTM China, Arm
Chloe Ma is responsible for market development, ecosystem expansion and overall PL of AIoT, edge computing, robotics and data storage markets. Before joining Arm, Chloe held leadership roles at semiconductor startup SiFive, as well as global semiconductor leaders Intel and Mellanox, delivering significant revenue growth in cloud compute, storage and high-speed cloud networking silicon and module products in the field of cloud infrastructure and hyperscale data centers. Before entering the semiconductor industry, Chloe has 15 years of experience in the field of networking, holding leadership positions in marketing, strategy and software engineering at Cisco, Huawei and Juniper Networks. Chloe holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor’s degree in Electronics from Peking University, China.
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