Dr. Shafy has 40 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, working with ASIC, FPGA, Analog Mixed Signal, and Memory Technologies. As CEO of OpenFive, a SiFive BU, he managed a team of 350 employees developing custom chips, RISC-V core processors, and connectivity IP's for various applications. Prior to that, he held VP positions at Microsemi, Open Silicon, and Lightspeed Semiconductor, where he played important roles in the development of ASIC, SoC, and structured ASIC/FPGA products. Dr. Shafy holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and M.Sc., B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University.
Dr. Naveed Sherwani is a well-known semiconductor industry veteran with over 30 years of entrepreneurial, engineering, and management experience. He is widely recognized as an innovator and leader in the field of design automation of ASICs and microprocessors and the main driver of the strategic evangelization of RISC-V International. Naveed has founded or co-founded over eleven silicon companies and raised over $850M in over 15 funding rounds from marquee venture capital firms during the course of his career. While serving as President, CEO, or Chairman, Naveed has been recognized as the leader of the “Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company” a record five times by the GSA (Global Semiconductor Alliance, the premier semiconductor industry membership body). He now serves as Chairman of GS Group, aiming to drive the next wave of silicon innovation by enabling growth strategies for semiconductor companies. Naveed also serves as the Chair the Open Source FPGA Foundation and is a Charter Member of notable Silicon Valley business forums such as TiE and OPEN. Dr. Naveed both a PhD and master’s degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a BE degree at NED University in Karachi, Pakistan. Naveed has also authored several books and over 100 articles on various aspects of VLSI physical design automation and ASICs.
A semiconductor and electronics manufacturing operations professional with diverse technical experience in IC manufacturing and international supply chain management in advanced technologies, wafer fabrication, packaging, test development, optimized product yield, quality, reliability, product/package qualification and product characterization, failure analysis and supply chain logistics. Career emphasis has been on ramping new products and technologies into production