GaN Systems founders retire
Ten years after launching GaN Systems, a fabless company based in Canada, president Girvan Patterson and CTO John Roberts have announced their retirement.
Patterson and Roberts will leave their operating roles. Patterson will retain a position on GaN Systems' board of directors, while Roberts will remain available to the company as an emeritus contributor.
Prior to starting GaN Systems, both Roberts and Patterson had extensive experience in the semiconductor industry. Roberts was founder and president of two Ottawa-based semiconductor companies, Calmos (later Tundra) Semiconductor, and SiGe Semiconductor. Patterson founded graphics workstation producer Orcatech, and co-founded Plaintree Systems, a pioneer in Ethernet switching. Together, Patterson and Roberts have taken a dozen companies either to an IPO or acquisition.
Reflecting over the past decade, Patterson remarked: "I am honoured to have presided over a company that has delivered a core technology for achieving the energy efficiency the world needs, by making electronic systems more efficient, lighter and compact. Saving a datacenter millions of dollars in energy costs or enabling hybrid vehicles to dramatically increase miles per gallon fuel efficiency is very satisfying as well as very important in today's world."
Roberts added, "We are very proud that we have been able to take that vision and culture beyond our company to the outside world - in the process convincing the supply chain and customers that we could make GaN real. It is very satisfying to see our customers' products - batteries charging in minutes instead of hours, Internet server racks with more Terabytes per second of data, cars with extended range, and motors with tiny embedded electronics - all because of our transistors."
In appreciation of the co-founders' contributions, GaN Systems' CEO, Jim Witham commented, "Founders Girvan Patterson and John Roberts both are visionary leaders who together have successfully navigated the development of GaN Systems' product development, manufacturing and quality processes.
"What Girvan and John have achieved during their tenure at GaN Systems is truly remarkable. They built a robust product portfolio, established the supply chain, and signed on a world-class global distribution and support channel. The company and culture they have built has attracted the very best talent and the results speak for themselves. Under their stewardship, for the first time wide band gap power devices have enabled power systems with vastly superior performance and lower cost than was possible with silicon."
