About Us - Core Team

Jeff Weigel

Before co-founding the Road Warrior Group in 2001, Jeff was with Vitesse Semiconductor where his executive rolls included Managing Director – Europe and Vice President Strategic Customers. He made the company's first sales and stayed to help it achieve Standard and Poors 500 status. Prior to Vitesse Jeff was Vice President of Sales at GARCO (a National Semiconductor sales subsidiary).  Jeff started his sales career at Motorola where he  structured and managed a nationwide sales force for emerging products. He began his engineering career at Westinghouse Space and Defense. Jeff has over 30 years of technology company management experience. Jeff often speaks internationally on ways to succeed in North American markets. He has a BSEE from Lafayette College, is an advisor to Fulcrum Microelectronics and resides in Manhattan Beach in Southern California. For additional information please view Jeff's profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffweigel

Doug Lyons

Working with companies large and small, Doug's experience includes marketing, sales, business development, strategic partnerships, mergers/acquisitions and angel investing (e.g. Trimble Navigation and Boschert). He has worked at Motorola Semiconductor, Daisy Systems, Mentor Graphics (VP of Worldwide Emerging Technology Sales), Virtual Silicon (VP) and numerous startups. His industry experience includes Semiconductor, Design Automation, IP, Wireless-Internet, Power, Enterprise Software, and Contract Manufacturing.

He has used the Customer Relationship Scorecard in many consulting engagements and workshops including SBA-Cisco Systems-San Jose Entrepreneur Center, the Software Developers Forum, Santa Clara University MBA Program, Chinese Entrepreneur Association, VC Portfolio companies, and numerous High-Tech Companies in both North America and Europe. Doug received a BSEE from University of Buffalo and MBA from the George Washington University. Doug resides in San Jose California.  For additional information please view Doug's profile on LinkedIn at  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/61/453

Ben Warren

Ben was most recently in business development for ten years at Nortel and BayNetworks. He structured partnerships and made several equity investments in technology firms that were strategic to new market and product goals. He represented Nortel at the UCBerkeley in the Sensor center. Earlier he was active as VP of Engineering at Weitek, General Manager at Chips and Technologies and Director of Design centers at VLSI Technology. His core competencies are New Technology Development and Roadmaps, Project and Program Management Strategic Marketing, Mentoring and building an organization, Product Development and Launch, P&L Management, Corporate Development –M&A and alliances, and Cross Disciplinary R&D management. His early career was in R&D for nine years at Intel, where he designed many standard products and processes, dating back to the early microprocessors, memories and telephony devices. RWG provides Ben an opportunity to work with high potential start-ups driving the innovations of tomorrow.  Ben resides in La Selva Beach, California.  For additional information please view Ben's profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/benmwarren

Adam Fletcher

Adam has over 26 years experience in the semiconductor industry in Europe, USA and Japan. His experience includes Procurement Systems, Sales Management, Strategic and Tactical Product Marketing, European Operational Management and Global Corporate Management. Adam has established, developed and managed, large multi-disciplined teams, generating sales revenues of $50M+pa. He has been directly involved with corporate acquisitions, disposals, HYB and IPO funding. Over the last 20 years Adam has worked directly with the development of many leading emerging Semiconductor companies with particular emphasis on OEM customer focused, regional and global demand creation, sales and marketing communication programmes. Adam’s key skill is in developing creative solutions to complex business issues and implementing them successfully. Adam holds numerous business and finance qualifications including an MBA from Aston Business School. For additional information please view Adam’s profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/euoadamfletcher

Andrew Haines

Mr. Haines has over 30 years experience in marketing high-technology semiconductor and electronic design automation products. He has extensive experience in successful marketing organization development, positioning for the IPO, business strategy development, new product planning, product marketing, marketing communications and OEM license negotiation. While at Synplicity he directed the marketing activities from initial market entry through the successful IPO and then led the marketing effort for Synplicity as a public company. His previous positions include: Vice President of Marketing, Synopsys, Inc.; Sr. Vice President of Marketing, Synplicity, Inc.; Director of Marketing, Actel Corporation; ASIC Strategic Marketing Manager; VLSI Technology, Inc.; and Major Accounts Marketing Manager, Intel Corporation. He holds a B.S in Physics from the University of Wisconsin. Andrew resides in Portola Valley California.  For additional information please view Andy's profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/andyhaines

Tim Smith

Mr. Smith is a respected semiconductor industry figure who has managed, negotiated and delivered numerous high value multi-year, multinational, collaborative business engagements yielding revenues of $500 Million+. He delivers results by combining his electronics industry knowledge (Semiconductor, IP, Design Services, Engineering, Rep, Distribution), International Sales, Marketing and Investment with a practical “hands on” approach, adding great value for semiconductor start-up’s. Tim is currently VP of WW Field Operations at Silistix and prior to was VP of World Wide Field Operations at CoWare. He has also successfully launched new companies as Vice President of Sales including Sonics Inc. and Triscend, Inc. Additionally, Tim was Managing Director of Memec Design Services a global company specializing in IP and design services for Datacom, Telecom and Satcom applications. Tim holds a BSEE degree from Arizona State University in Tempe Arizona. For additional information please view Tim's profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tim-smith/0/206/558

Kevin Mclaughlin

Kevin has over 30 years of industry experience in semiconductors and systems, serving as an executive leader for the past 16 years. Kevin combines his leadership and technical expertise in building international teams with a focus on timely product development and revenue generation. Kevin directed acquisitions and divestitures, consolidated and aligned teams, and outsourced engineering activities. He managed a $6B product development portfolio at Cisco, audio products as VP of Engineering at Avid, Visualization systems and Microprocessor development as VP at SGI. Kevin led IC operations at Cray Research and started his career with Motorola. He is skilled with technology transitions, program management methods, mentoring teams and leaders, roadmap definition, and product delivery. Kevin holds the BS degree in Physics from Stevens Institute of Technology, an MS in Management from Cardinal Stritch University, studied MSEE at Arizona State University and authored many patents and papers. For additional information please view Kevin's profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-mclaughlin/0/81/a4a  

About Us - Associates

RWG Associates are called in to help in specific geographic areas or as part of our network of domain specific knowledge experts

Erik Gräfenschnell

Over the past 23 years Erik has been directly responsible for the business development and growth of over 20 emerging semiconductor companies in Central Europe, with a bias towards complex microprocessors, storage and communication products. With significant experience in complex contract negotiation and communication Erik has successfully managed and motivated multi-disciplined teams. Erik lives in Unterhaching a suburb of Munich, Germany and is fluent in both spoken and written English and German languages. Having initially qualified with an Electronic Engineering Degree, Erik has recently completed studying for a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) Degree.

 

John Figueroa

John is a Silicon Valley patent agent and professional engineer with over 20 years experience. He can discuss RWG client specific global patent strategy, write and file both United States and PCT International patents, review potential new products prior to U.S. market introduction, and assist in technology licensing efforts. John can explain the different types of U.S. patents, and if a product is patentable or not and how to decide if you should file a patent application. He is a specialist in intellectual property matters, and will share his knowledge with you to answer your questions. At Intel, John performed significant patent portfolio analysis across networks, storage systems, graphics, video coding, and telephony technologies. John earned the degrees; B.S. electrical engineering, and recently a J.D. of Law specializing in intellectual property. He has been a U.S. registered Patent Agent since 2003 and a California Professional Electrical Engineer since 1997. He brings a background of technical competence into dialogue with start-up companies that can quickly identify a course of action on IP issues. John currently resides in Los Altos California. For additional information please view John's LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/publicviewjohnfigueroa