ESS Technology, Inc. Names Dr. Saied Tehrani President and Chief Executive Officer

< Newsroom | Posted: Monday March 11, 2019

MILPITAS, Calif., March 11, 2019 – ESS Technology, Inc. announced today that its board of directors has appointed Dr. Saied Tehrani as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In addition, John Kispert has become Executive Chairman and Fred Chan has become Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Robert Blair will remain the chief operating officer.  These leadership appointments are effective immediately and follow Fred Chan’s decision to reduce his executive role from CEO and Chairman to Vice Chairman of the board of directors.

“We are extremely excited to have Saied as the new CEO and John as the Chairman of the board,” said Fred Chan. Saied has a strong track record of growing businesses and has the right operational and strategic experience to deliver improved execution and financial performance. John has a stellar global reputation built on a demonstrable track record of success in growing companies and creating value for shareholders.”

“I am honored and excited to lead ESS Technology. ESS Technology has a strong brand, great technology and product portfolio with marquee customers,” said Dr. Tehrani.

Dr. Tehrani has more than 30 years of experience in the electronics and semiconductor industries. Most recently, he was managing partner at Influence Capital Partners, Inc.  He has also held the positions of Corporate Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Microcontroller Business Unit and Chief Technology Officer at Spansion Inc. At Spansion, Dr. Tehrani managed a $500M automotive, industrial, and consumer microcontroller business.  He was responsible for all new products, system and software, design, and technologies including microcontrollers, voice recognition, analog, and Flash products. Prior to Spansion, Saied was founder and chief operating officer of Everspin Technology, a global leader in MRAM technology and products. Also, Dr. Tehrani was executive director of analog and mixed signal technologies at Freescale Semiconductor. He also held a number of executive positions at Motorola.  Saied received the prestigious IEEE Daniel Noble award for development of MRAM Technology in 2008.

John Kispert has held a number of executive and board positions during his more than 20 years in the semiconductor industry. Kispert was CEO of Spansion, Inc., where he guided the company through a period of significant sales growth and margin expansion, including the acquisition of a division of Fujitsu Microelectronics, through to Spansion’s eventual sale to Cypress Semiconductor in March 2015. Prior to Spansion Inc., Kispert spent 13 years at KLA-Tencor, where he held positions including president, COO and CFO, and helped transform the semiconductor equipment company from $300 million to over $3 billion in annual revenues. He also held several management positions at IBM.

Founded in 1984, ESS Technology is the worldwide leader in audio solutions. A privately held, fabless semiconductor company, ESS Technology designs and markets high-performance analog and audio devices for mobile, consumer, automotive, and professional audiophile systems. For more information, visit http://www.esstech.com.