About Alif

Babak is a veteran figure in the wireless and semiconductor industry with over 30 years at the cutting edge of technology, and a hugely successful track record in change management and creating value, most recently as the CEO of Endura Technologies and EVP of Ensigma BU at Imagination Technologies. Prior to that, Mr. Bastani was the COO at Cambridge Touch Technologies and SVP of Engineering at Samsung Electronics. Mr. Bastani has held senior leadership roles at top semiconductor and OEMs including VP of chip global design at Cambridge Silicon Radio and Executive Director of R&D at Freescale Semiconductors where he was a key contributor in the successful turn-around of the wireless division and the subsequent sale of the company to the private equity consortium.

Edward serves as Alif’s Vice President of SoC Design, responsible for advanced custom silicon and hardware development across Alif’s entire product line. Prior to Alif, Edward held senior positions at NXP and Atmel, where he was responsible for design of Mobile and IoT focused Connectivity SoCs, Wireless Microcontrollers, RFID/NFC ICs, and security devices. Previously, he was a founder at Newport Media, an IoT connectivity solutions provider that was acquired by Atmel in 2014. He holds bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkely, and Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.

Joy has over 25 years of experience in corporate finance, international accounting, corporate income taxes, treasury, and merger & acquisitions. She previously served as Vice President, Corporate Controller for Cavium, Inc. (Nasdaq: CAVM). Joy played a key role in the company’s successful IPO in 2007 and managed the Company’s finance through both organic growth and multiple international acquisitions until 2018, when it was successfully acquired by Marvell. She is now the Corporate Controller of Alif Semiconductor overseeing all financial operations. Joy started her career as a tax associate at KPMG in the New York office. Joy earned both bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mark Rootz, VP of Marketing at Alif Semiconductor, is a business and technology executive with 35+ years’ experience who specializes in semiconductor product definition, productization, go-to-market, business development, and team building. He previously held positions in these roles at leading companies such as STMicroelectronics, Freescale, and Renesas. Mark began his career in systems engineering for networked avionics, then automotive powertrain control before moving to the semiconductor industry in the realm of microcontrollers, microprocessors, and connectivity. His technology areas of focus include embedded processing and control, artificial intelligence/machine learning, low power wireless communication, and extreme low-power semiconductor techniques. Mark holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from the University of Missouri – Rolla.

When a small group of people believe in a common goal, nothing is impossible. Mike has spent his career building high performing teams and helping companies achieve their full potential. During a long career at STMicroelectronics, Mike led the Computer and Peripherals Business Unit with over $1.2B in annual revenue from some of the largest names in technology. He then became WW VP of Sales and Marketing for STEC and oversaw revenue growth in excess of 300% which led to a successful sale to Western Digital Corporation. Having worked in large multinationals, as well as smaller companies intent on creating new markets, Mike strongly believes that people always buy from people they trust. With a 30 year old BSEE in his pocket and a relentless quest to solve the toughest challenges, Mike is helping Alif Semiconductor build the teams, systems, and trust with customers, that can accomplish the impossible.

During his career, Steve has been a leader focused on innovation, business development and execution at multiple fortune 500 companies. He has directed multiple large R&D organizations spanning international sites and has managed the development of award-winning hardware and software products, from concept through production. Steve joined Alif Semiconductor in March 2019 as VP of Software & Systems Engineering where he leads the Software Development, Systems Engineering and Applications teams responsible for supporting Alif’s revolutionary IoT AI/ML MCU products. Prior to joining Alif Semiconductor in March 2019, Steve was COO of Secure Thingz and was responsible for Development Engineering and Operations of embedded security solutions for IoT. Prior to joining Secure Thingz in Oct 2016, Steve spent three years at Atmel as VP of SW, Tools and Applications for the MCU/MPU Organization.

Zaheer leads the Worldwide Operations team at Alif. Zaheer has over 30+ years of Semiconductor Operations experience managing end to end aspects of Operations including Product, Test, DFT, Foundry, board and package engineering, Quality and Reliability and Planning and Manufacturing including overseas operations. Prior to joining Alif, Zaheer was at Innovium for 3+ years as VP of Operations until acquired by Marvell and was SVP, Global Operations Engineering at Marvell. Before Marvell, Zaheer was at Cavium for 17+ years. He joined Cavium Inc., at early stage as VP of Operations and was responsible of establishing and growing Operations team thru IPO for 17years and until it was acquired by Marvell with revenue run rate of >$1B+/year. Zaheer earned a MSEE from the Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ and BSEE from the Osmania University, Hyderabad, India