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Board of Directors

Don Whitson – Chairman

Managing Director – Vital Equity Partners
Mr. Whitson has been building, owning, guiding, and investing in mid-market manufacturing companies for his entire career. As co-founder and CEO of Span Instruments in the mid-1970’s, Mr. Whitson built Span into an instrumentation manufacturing company serving a broad range of industries, including semiconductor manufacturing. In 1996 the company merged with publicly traded Tylan General. After the sale of Tylan General to Millipore Corporation, Mr. Whitson invested in many successful private manufacturing companies. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Whitson was Chairman of Authentix, which was later acquired by Carlyle Group. Mr. Whitson is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in finance.

Rod C. Fallow

President – Swagelok Northern California
Mr. Fallow has enjoyed a long and varied career with the Swagelok organization, starting in Canada, and with international experience in sales, distribution, manufacturing, and marketing. Mr. Fallow was the President and owner of Swagelok Sunnyvale until 2010 when he oversaw the merger of the company with Oakland Valve and Fitting. Prior to that, Mr. Fallow was the Vice President of Marketing for Swagelok Company in Ohio. Mr. Fallow is also on the board of Living Classroom, a non-profit educational organization. Mr. Fallow attended the University of Alberta, and graduated from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.

Joe Cestari

President – President & GM Americas at Kinetics
Joe Cestari has more than 27 years of high technology industry experience, including semiconductor device design, process and equipment engineering, and supply chain management. Recently, Mr. Cestari held executive level positions at ILS Technology, and at Kinetics where he was instrumental in establishing the company’s infrastructure throughout Asia. Mr. Cestari served as President of a noted joint venture (TRiMEGA) between Kinetics Electronics and Air Products and Chemicals, and previously held management and technical positions with Tylan General, Applied Materials, and Advanced Micro Devices. Mr. Cestari earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from Baylor University, and has completed graduate studies in international business and the management of technology.

Robert B. MacKnight

CEO – Reno Sub-Systems
Bob MacKnight is a seasoned international business leader with more than 40 years of experience, over 30 of which were executive positions with P&L responsibility, and included two startups. Mr. MacKnight was president and CEO of Crossing Automation, where he oversaw all operational activities, including repositioning the company and renewing its marketing efforts. These activities led to the company’s acquisition by the largest market shareholder. Prior to Crossing, he served as president and COO at Mattson, where he spearheaded operational activities, led manufacturing and the product groups, and was responsible for the company’s global business operations. Before joining Mattson, Mr. MacKnight spent 3 1/2 years at Microbar Inc., where he was president and chief operating officer. He has also held senior management positions with Cymer Inc., Watkins-Johnson Semiconductor Equipment Group, Aktis Corp., Peak Systems and Eaton Corp. Mr. MacKnight holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts.

Dr. Joseph Stach

Retired Vice President – Advanced Energy Industries
Dr. Joseph Stach served as the Chairman, President and CEO of Advanced Energy Voorhees, Inc. (formerly RF Power Products Inc.) starting in 1992. Dr. Stach served as Vice President of Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. from October 1998 to 2003, and also served as Senior Vice President of Advanced Energy. Dr. Stach served as Executive Director for the Center for Microelectronics Research at the University of South Florida from 1988 to 1991. Dr. Stach was a professor of electrical engineering at Penn State University from 1967 to 1984, and has extensive experience in the development and commercialization of power electronics and power supplies. Dr. Stach is a Director of AVX Corp., Semilab SDI LLC, Semiconductor Diagnostics Inc., Waveguide Solutions, Inc. and Verteq Inc., and was the first Executive Director of the Massachusetts Technology Park until 1987. Dr. Stach received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Penn State University.