2026 CMC Conference

Angel Siordia

Angel Siordia is a Territory Manager at Applied Seals North America Global. His background includes military service as a Field Service Technician, working on multiple defense platforms. After completing his military service, he transitioned into sales and business development .He assists IDMs, OEMs, and material suppliers in sea optimization. Working with end users and material development teams across the globe to enhance seal performance and reliability. He works on traceability initiatives, specializing in sealing solutions, data collection, and global supply chain.

Ben Sell

Ben Sell is Vice President and General Manager of Logic Technology Development at Intel, where he leads strategic planning and advanced technology development initiatives. With more than 23 years of experience at Intel, Ben brings deep expertise across logic and specialized semiconductor technologies. Earlier in his career, Ben worked at Infineon Technologies, contributing to DRAM development.

Brianna Dufek

Brianna Dufek is a chemist at Elemental Scientific, Inc. since 2019. She has specialized in automating organic contaminant determination in semiconductor-grade chemicals utilizing a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QTOF MS). Her focus has been on developing online techniques to detect ppt level organic contaminants utilizing ESI’s advanced automation. Brianna received her B.S. at Creighton University in Omaha, NE.

Craig North

Craig North is the Senior Director of Research, Development and Engineering for Advanced Deposition Materials at Entegris, where he leads innovation and global programs for next-generation semiconductor materials. With over a decade of experience spanning Entegris, Delphon, and EMD Electronics, he has driven R&D, product strategy, and commercial growth across advanced deposition technologies and specialty gases.

George Alajajian

George Alajajian is the Vice President of Strategic Parts Supply Chain at Intel. He joined the Foundry and Construction Sourcing organization at the beginning of 2020, and is responsible for shaping Intel’s parts supply chain network to deliver world class parts performance for quality, availability, cost and cycle time to Technology Development and High-Volume Manufacturing operations. George has more than 25 years of industry experience, with 20+ years in senior executive positions in the semiconductor capital equipment industry.

James Damico

James is a results-driven procurement professional with more than 12 years of experience leading global sourcing strategies, procurement transformation initiatives, and technology enablement across complex organizations. He currently serves as Senior Program Manager for Digital Sourcing, Technology, and Operations at onsemi, where he focuses on modernizing procurement capabilities and driving operational excellence. Previously, he spent over a decade at Intel as a Global Sourcing Category Manager and Program Manager, supporting large-scale sourcing and transformation programs. He holds an MBA from Michigan State University’s Broad School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance from SUNY Albany.

James Sanders

James Sanders is a Senior Analyst at TechInsights with over 5 years of experience as an industry analyst, and 7 years of experience as a technology journalist. Before joining TechInsights, James worked as a Research Analyst on the Cloud Transformation team at 451 Research where he led the analysis of quantum computing hardware and software, quantum sensing, quantum networking, and the applicable use cases and industry impact of quantum technologies. He also developed thought leadership reports on quantum computing, cloud resource management, and the environmental sustainability of cloud computing.

Jason McNichols

Jason McNichols the Technical Sales and Business Development Director for Portland, OR-based High Purity Products. He has 26 years of industry experience in Defect, Diffusion and Wet Etch process Engineering at 3 local Portland-area fabs and has been in his current role at HPP for 8 years. Jason has 3 US patents for Defect inspection-related topics, and has been given internal technology awards for novel innovations in wet etch. His passion is bringing his fab process knowledge to a new generation of Fab engineers as well as HPP’s wide customer base: solving problems over selling products.

Kade McGarrity

Kade McGarrity is a Product and Process Design Engineer working for Momentive Technologies on boron nitride powders and densified boron nitride shapes. He started working for Momentive in 2022 after receiving his PhD from Alfred University in Materials Science and Engineering with a focus on non-oxide ceramics. At Momentive, Kade drives new BN powder product development through experimentation and analysis of powder characteristics and performance in thermal management applications.

Lihong Cao

Lihong is the Senior Director of Engineering and Technical Marketing at ASE (U.S.) Inc., where she oversees product development and project management across ASIC, optical, RF, sensor, and analog technologies. She leads engineering teams through new product introduction to high-volume production while working closely with customers on advanced heterogeneous integration solutions such as SiP, PoP, 2.5D/3D, fan-out, bridge, and SESUB. Lihong is recognized for connecting customers and manufacturing teams to drive technical execution, product quality, and sustained revenue growth.

Jonas Sundqvist

Jonas is a Sr. Technology Analyst of TechInsights, covering ALD and CVD precursors and related technologies. His over 20 years of work experience includes Group Leader of the Thin-Film Technologies Group at The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS), Clean Room Operations Manager for Lund Nano Lab, and Group Leader of the ALD & High-k devices group at Fraunhofer’s Center Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT), which included 28nm node work for GLOBALFOUNDRIES Fab1. Previously, at Infineon Memory Development Centre (MDC), he developed high-k and metal nitride ALD processes, and at Qimonda, he was a materials manager focused on the ALD / CVD precursors supply-chain. He is the founder of BALD Engineering, an independent blog and networking platform for ALD.

Karey Holland

Karey is a Technical Strategist & Sr. Analyst of Litho Materials at TechInsights. She has specialized in advanced semiconductor transistor fabrication, including metrology, CMP, ALD & CVD, photolithography, and interconnect technologies for over 30 years. She was CTO of start-up NexPlanar, strategic marketing senior manager at FEI, on the Board of Directors at Nova Measuring Instruments, VP of technology at CMP pad supplier Thomas West, and CTO and VP of process technology at CMP OEM IPEC/SpeedFam-IPEC. Previously, she was manager of manufacturing planning for Motorola’s Microprocessor and Memory Technology Group. Her career began in process engineering at IBM where she managed DUV lithography technology development, and worked on interconnect integration for 4 and 16 Mb DRAMs, which were the first chips in the world to use tungsten plugs and CMP for all interconnect dielectrics.

Kevin Heidrich

Kevin has worked in the semiconductor industry for 30 years with a focus on semiconductor process and process integration, capital equipment, manufacturing systems, and related products and services. Kevin was formerly employed at Onto Innovation (the merger of Nanometrics Incorporated and Rudolph Technologies in 2019) holding the title of SVP, Corporate Development & Marketing. Prior to Onto, Kevin was employed at Nanometrics, from April 2006 holding the title of SVP Marketing & Business Development. He was responsible for product marketing, corporate strategy, and M&A. Kevin began his career working in process engineering at Intel and spent 10 years working in Logic Technology Development in Portland Oregon.

Kurtis Fairley

Kurtis has degrees in both Chemistry and Physics from Pacific Lutheran University followed by a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Oregon. He worked in the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry, focused on turning research into start ups. He spent time working in a biotech spin out, Nemametrix, then entered into Semiconductors working at Edwards. His focus has been on collaborating with OEMs/IDMs to develop new solutions for next generation semiconductor processes as an Applications Engineer, Technical Program Manager, North America Innovation Center Manager, and Director of Technical Programs North America.

Lita Shon-Roy

Lita Shon-Roy is President of Market Analysis with over 30 years of experience across the semiconductor supply chain in strategy, business development, marketing, and sales. She has held key roles at companies such as RASIRC/Matheson Gases, Air Products, and Hughes Aircraft, and is recognized as a leading expert in electronic materials market analysis. Widely published and quoted in outlets including the Wall Street Journal and BBC News, she holds an MBA from CSU Dominguez Hills, an MSEE from USC, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from UC San Diego.

Pratik Joshi

Material scientist, senior leader, technical expert and people manager with 18 plus years of experience in semiconductor foundry business development, new FAB process set up, advanced node technology transfer, leading big cross functional teams, people management, technology development and semiconductor supplier development. Expert in setting up new FAB and advanced node CMOS processes from scratch. Excellent track record of accomplishments in a very fast paced, highly matrixed organization for CHIP manufacturing. Detailed knowledge of lean manufacturing techniques including 8D, FMEA, GEMBA and Kaizen.

Ralph Dammel

Ralph R. Dammel received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt/FRG in 1986. He has worked for EMD Electronics, the Electronics business of Merck KGaA Darmstadt Germany, in the US, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Germany and is currently employed as Technology Fellow in the Chief Technology Office (CTO).Dr. Dammel is the author of over 200 scientific papers in chemistry and microlithography and is an inventor on about 500 patents in over 110 patent families in the field. His monograph “Diazonaphthoquinone-based Resists” is generally recognized as the definitive book on the subject. In spring 2009, Dr. Dammel was elected as SPIE Fellow. He received the Photopolymer Science and Technology Outstanding Achievement Award in June 2011, SPIE’s Frits Zernicke Award for Microlithography in February 2015, and Merck KGaA’s Science Award in 2020.

Robert Goodin

Robert Goodin is a Mineral Commodity Specialist for the National Minerals Information Center within the United States Geological Survey. As a Mineral Commodity Specialist, he tracks and analyzes a variety of semiconductor– and oil– and gas-related mineral commodities with a focus on understanding supply-demand dynamics, market risks, and vulnerabilities within mineral supply chains. His work involves close collaboration with multiple defense and intelligence agencies to help strengthen U.S. mineral supply chains.

Shari Liss

Shari Liss is a seasoned professional with over 25 years in workforce development and tech education, is currently the driving force as Vice President of Global Workforce Development and Initiatives at SEMI. In this role, she focuses on leading impactful workforce development programs and initiatives for the microelectronics industry that span over 3800 global companies. Under Shari’s dynamic leadership, SEMI has successfully launched numerous national and global workforce development initiatives. She has secured significant funding to drive programs that enhance industry image and focus on attracting people from all different backgrounds and experiences to the sector. With a profound commitment to shaping the future of tech education, Shari’s current role at SEMI exemplifies her dedication to addressing critical workforce needs and fostering cross-sector partnerships that bridge industry, academia, community-based organizations, and the workforce.

Simon Elliott

Dr. Simon Elliott is a pioneer in applying atomic-scale models to the surface chemistry of materials deposition and etch. Before joining Schrödinger as product manager for the semiconductor sector, he studied chemistry in Ireland and Germany, and led a research group at Tyndall National Institute in Ireland. He was the 2023 recipient of the ALD Innovator Award.

Sriram Ramamoorthy

Sriram Ramamoorthy is a staff supply chain engineer in Intel’s Global Material Organization managing filtration and chemicals. He has been with Intel for 10 years, 5 years in Wet Etch Technology Development. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engg from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Stephen Russell

Stephen is the Senior Technical Fellow for Sustainability at TechInsights, offering expertise on carbon impact across the full technology life cycle, with deep insight into semiconductor manufacturing process flows and associated emissions With over 20 years in semiconductors, he is an internationally recognized researcher. He was awarded best paper for the IEEE Journal Transactions on Power Electronics paper “High Temperature Electrical and Thermal Aging Performance and Application Considerations for SiC power DMOSFETs”. He led an exploratory research project in gallium oxide for power devices, presenting findings to the Royal Institution, London. While working in industry, he led the development of a new silicon IGBT product line and instigated a research and development project to use silicon carbide JFETs in circuit protection applications.

Xiangyu Guo

Xiangyu works as Technology Program Manager at Air Liquide Advanced Materials, specializing in advanced and sustainable etch chemistry for semiconductor manufacturing processes. At the current role, Xiangyu is focusing on the technical and strategic development of innovative etching gases tailored for the industry’s most demanding nodes. By collaborating directly with global semiconductor leaders, he is tasked with delivering innovative solutions that bridge the gap between technical excellence and customer’s urgent sustainability mandates. Xiangyu holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Wisconsin – Madison