The Clas-SiC team comprises some of the best and most experienced talent in the industry. Our expertise combines a wide range of SiC engineering, project management, business and customer service disciplines.
Our Team
USA
Carl Johnson
Executive Chairman
Carl founded II-VI Incorporated (Saxonburg, Pennsylvania USA) in 1971 to develop and manufacture II-VI compound semiconductor materials for optics and electro-optical applications in the then emerging, high-power laser arena. He served the company as its Principal Executive Officer and a Director for 36 years and continued as its Board Chairman for an additional 7 years.
During his career at II-VI, Carl oversaw and participated in or helped motivate company efforts to:
- Develop and deploy the commercial scale manufacturing of highest-quality, laser-grade Cadmium Telluride (1971), Zinc Selenide (1975), Zinc Sulfide (1985) and diamond (2004)
- Develop and deploy the commercial scale manufacturing of highest-quality,electronic-grade 3 inch (2004), 100 mm (2007) and 150 mm (2012) diameter SiliconCarbide substrates.
- Since 2007, Carl has been active as a Primary Equity Investor and Director in 3emerging, technology-based businesses and serves as Board Chairman at two of those entities.
Carl attained a Bachelors Degree from Purdue University (USA) in 1964, the Masters Degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) in 1965, and a Ph.D. Degree from the University of Illinois (USA) in 1969, all in the field of Electrical Engineering.
Carl JohnsonDr. Anant Argwal Ph.D
Non-executive Director
IEEE Fellow
Dr. Agarwal joined the ECE department at The Ohio State University in August 2017. Previously he was Senior Advisor for Wide Band Gap (WBG) semiconductors at the US Department of Energy (DOE) from 2013 to 2016. While at DOE, Dr. Agarwal helped create and manage four programs related
to WBG technology and their applications including PowerAmerica, with a vision of creating a manufacturing base for Wide Band Gap devices in US.
Previously, Dr. Agarwal was Manager of Research and Development for Silicon Carbide power devices at Cree, Inc. (1999-2013), a Fellow at Northrop Grumman Science and Technology Center, Pittsburgh (1990-1999), Associate Professor in MNREC, Allahabad, India (1985-1990) and Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (1984-1985).
Dr. Agarwal received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University, Pa in 1984; He jointly holds more than 60 patents, has co-authored more than 300 research papers, co-edited a book on Silicon Carbide Technology, co-authored five book chapters and was elected an IEEE Fellow in January 2012 for his lifetime contributions to Wide Band Gap technologies.
Dr. Anant Argwal Ph.D
JD Brookhart
Non-executive Director
JD Brookhart, a managing director at CJ&M Holdings, holds a finance degree from Colorado State University.
He began his career as an award winning sales executive at Xerox and was recruited to advance his career in medical equipment sales and then engineering software sales. He made a life-changing decision and spent the next 18 years coaching football in the NFL and at the highest level of college. He was a coordinator and head coach at a number of prestigious schools. He now directs CJ&M Holdings and their pursuit of supporting start-up companies.
JD also serves as a Board member for several for profit and non-profit entities. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and 4 sons.
JD BrookhartUK
Rae Hyndman
Managing Director
Rae has 30 years’ experience in the Semiconductor industry working for Hughes Microelectronics and then Raytheon Systems. Rae has held advanced technology leadership roles in Process Engineering, Manufacturing and Operations.
A qualified Raytheon 6δ Expert, Rae has worked as a R6δ project manager leading many process & quality improvement projects. Rae’s experience, capability and effectiveness will provide a “Global Competitive” operational excellence model for Clas-Sic Wafer Fab.
Rae HyndmanGraeme Morland
Manufacturing Excellence, Quality & Engineering Manager
Graeme has 30 years Semiconductor Industry experience holding individual contributor and managerial positions in Process, Equipment and Process Integration Engineering roles at some of the leading Si, GaN and SiC based semiconductor companies working across 100mm to 300mm substrates.
Using a pragmatic and collaborative approach, Graeme has been responsible for leading and contributing to operational and organisational improvement projects across his career.
Graeme is degree qualified in Applied Physics and Semiconductor Electronics, holds a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and is a certified 6-sigma green belt practitioner.
Graeme MorlandScott Forrest
Chief Financial Officer
Scott brings over 30 years’ experience to the Clas-SiC team as CFO, Finance Director & Senior Management Team member, previously working in Fabrication & Engineering / Oil & Gas and Renewables industry, undertaking a key role as Finance lead in the business operations and strategy as part of the Board of Directors whist managing and delivering on the reporting requirements of the company and ensuring the day-to-day running of the finance, compliance, HR departments.
Scott ForrestDavid Clark
Technology & Customer Relations Manager
David has a strong background in process engineering and process development, with more than 24 years of silicon process integration, device
engineering, process development and yield engineering experience at Raytheon Systems. David moved into Silicon Carbide process integration and device engineering in 2004 and has experience across many SiC device technologies including Schottky diodes, PiN diodes, MOSFET’s, JFET’s,
BJT’s, CLD’s and MESFET’s. During David’s tenure at Raytheon, he worked on a number of successful SiC process developments leading to successful
manufacture of 1000’s of SiC device wafers.
David has a first class honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering as well as a Post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Silicon Processing and Manufacturing Technologies. He has authored or co-authored more than 10 SiC processing papers, is joint inventor of one SiC related patent and has 3 other SiC related patent submissions pending. David joined Clas-SiC in 2017 as Principal Technologist, with oversight of Clas-SiC’s technology roadmap and technical direction.
David Clark