Altair Semiconductor Appoints Mark Rice as Vice President and General Manager, Americas
Altair Semiconductor Appoints Mark Rice as Vice President and General Manager, Americas
First global office established in Dallas, Texas marks beginning of Altair’s global expansion
HOD HASHARON, Israel - September 3, 2008 - Altair Semiconductor, a fabless chip company developing the world's most advanced 4G mobile semiconductors for handheld devices, today announced the appointment of Mark Rice as Vice President and General Manager, Americas. Rice’s appointment also marks the beginning of Altair’s global expansion and the opening of a new office in Dallas, Texas.
Rice joins Altair with 25 years of experience in semiconductor systems sales and marketing and has worked extensively in the Americas, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. In his new role with the company, he will be charged with growing Altair’s business and presence in the Americas.
“As the 4G market starts to materialize in North America, indicated by actual deployments of mobile WiMAX and increased trial activity of LTE, we feel it is the right time for Altair to grow its business and leverage our unique product position into a leadership market position,” said Oded Melamed, CEO of Altair Semiconductor. “With Mark’s extensive experience in semiconductor sales and marketing, coupled with his proven history of driving impressive growth, we are confident he is the right person to lead Altair’s growth and build our presence in this important region.”
“Altair has a world-class executive team–I have known most of them for many years, and have witnessed their ability to make the impossible, possible,” said Rice. “The superiority of Altair’s products in terms of power consumption, size and cost represent an outstanding opportunity to drive growth and capture a leadership position in the mobile WiMAX terminal space. In addition, the prospects of our programmable O2P™ (Optimized OFDMA Processor) architecture will enable Altair to capture a similar position in the LTE space.”
Prior to joining Altair, Rice was Director, Asia Business Development for DSP systems at Texas Instruments (TI), where he spearheaded programs that improved customer channel management and increased profitability, sales and overall market share. TI presented Rice with the 2008 Award for Excellence in Asia ASP Customer Satisfaction, recognizing his excellence in cross-cultural business development and support.
Previously, he had served as Vice President of Americas Sales for Alcatel Microelectronics and had directed the U.S. Computer OEM sales at Conexant, Inc., a successor Company of Rockwell Semiconductor. Rice holds a BS in Economics and Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas.
About Altair Semiconductor
Altair is the world's leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G semiconductors that take broadband bandwidth beyond notebooks and USB adaptors to un-tethered, battery-operated handheld devices. The company's products provide handheld device manufacturers, integrating 4G technologies into their products with a highly power-optimized, robust and cost-effective solution. Altair is privately held and has raised a total of $26M in two rounds of financing.
For more information, visit www.altair-semi.com.