News

10 June 2010

 

UCSB spin-off Soraa hires ex-Intel and Samsung exec as president & CEO

Soraa Inc of Goleta CA, USA says that Eric Kim will become its president & CEO on 6 July, based at its new corporate headquarters in Fremont, CA, USA.

Soraa is the parent company of Kaai Inc. Funded by Khosla Ventures, both were co-founded in 2008 by nitride-based semiconductor laser pioneers Shuji Nakamura, Steven Denbaars and James Speck, who are professors in the Solid State Lighting & Display Center of University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and had previously developed the first non-polar nitride laser in 2007. The vertically integrated firm Kaai aims to commercialize green and blue laser diodes — based on patented and proprietary indium gallium nitride (InGaN) semiconductor technology fabricated on GaN substrates at a facility in Santa Barbara — for consumer, biomedical, defense, and industrial applications. In May, Kaai started shipping its new blue laser diode product for display and specialty applications.

Soraa says that Kim has extensive experience in branding, marketing, and product development. Most recently, he was Intel’s chief marketing officer & head of its global Sales and Marketing group, and then senior VP & general manager of its Digital Home Group (one of only two senior Intel executives hired from outside the company). Under his leadership, Intel recently announced an agreement to include Intel Atom processors inside Sony TVs and Blu-ray players as well as set-top designs from Logitech and other manufacturers. Prior to joining Intel in 2004, Kim was executive VP at Samsung, in charge of global marketing and business development in the digital convergence area.

See related item:

Kaai starts shipping blue laser for display and specialty applications

Search: Kaai Blue laser diodes InGaN

Visit: www.soraa.com