Welcome -- Meet Our Team!

Mike Pinelis, Ph.D.
President and CEO
mike@memsjournal.com

Dr. Mikhail ("Mike") Pinelis is the CEO and editor-in-chief of MEMS Journal, an independent publication based in Southfield, Michigan that he founded in 2003 and grew to the current 34,800+ subscribers worldwide.  Along with MEMS Journal, Dr. Pinelis has also developed a management consulting practice focused on MEMS, sensors and microsystems.

Prior to MEMS Journal, Dr. Pinelis served as Director of Business Development for ISD Technology Group in Mansfield, Massachusetts.  Prior to that, Dr. Pinelis founded MindCruiser, a company specializing in developing intellectual property online marketplaces that was sold to Akiva Corporation in 2001.

Dr. Pinelis is an active participant in the MEMS and semiconductor market sectors and currently serves on advisory boards of leading industry associations such as the Micro Electronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council (MEPTEC) and Micro and Nanotechnology Commercialization Education Foundation (MANCEF).

Dr. Pinelis earned a Bachelor's degree in engineering from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California and Master's and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering with a focus in MEMS and microfluidics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.


Jeff Hilbert
Director, RF Technologies
jeff@memsjournal.com

Jeffrey L. Hilbert is the Director, RF Technologies for MEMS Journal.  He is also the Founding Partner and CEO of 2 The Point Advisors, LLC, a technology and business consulting firm.  Jeff was CEO, President and Founder of WiSpry, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company utilizing CMOS-integrated radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems (RF-MEMS) technology to develop tunable RF products for the cellular communications and wireless consumer electronics markets.  WiSpry defined and pioneered the rapidly growing Tunable RF market segment.  

Jeff has over 40 years of executive management and technical experience in a number of leading semiconductor and MEMS companies including LSI Logic, Compass Design Automation, AMCC, Motorola, Harris and Coventor.  Early in his career, Jeff did pioneering work in CMOS technology, and in IC design tools leading to today’s design automation tools that are supplied by companies such as Cadence.  An experienced entrepreneur, Jeff has raised over $120M in financing to fund two consecutive start-up semiconductor companies over the past fifteen years.  He is now working on his third and fourth start-ups.  Jeff also has board of directors and advisory board experience in the commercial, government, and academic arenas.  

Mr. Hilbert holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida, an MS in Computer Science from Florida Institute of Technology, and has done course work towards a PhD in Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University.  He also holds a Certificate of Completion from the University of Florida / Harris Corporation  graduate program in Business.


Jim Cantore
Principal Analyst, Semiconductor Devices
jcantore@memsjournal.com

Jim has dedicated his high technology career to dealing with key issues of growth companies.  With semiconductor devices, systems and financial advisory experience, he has consulted to high technology and financial clients.  He annually participates as panelist and chairperson  at MemCon, Flash Memory Summit, Netbook Summit, Ethernet Summit and Network Systems Design conferences.

Before joining MEMS Journal, Jim has held semiconductor market intelligence and business development executive positions at iSuppli, International Data Corp., Micron Technology, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, National Semiconductor, OKI Semiconductor and Mosel-Vitelic corporations.

Mr. Cantore is a graduate of the University of Southern California, with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.  He attended graduate and executive programs at Stanford University and the Universities of Michigan and New Mexico.  He is an IEEE Member of the Solid State Circuits, Communications and Components Packaging, Manufacturing and Test Societies.

 
Eric Chu
Analyst, BioMEMS and Microfluidics
echu@memsjournal.com

Prior to joining MEMS Journal, Eric was an Investment Analyst in the equity and fixed income divisions of T. Rowe Price.  His work included the creation of a performance attribution model for taxable fixed income securities, building a stock-ranking model for energy stocks, and developing applications to optimize assigning analyst coverage.  Eric is an honors graduate in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.  He was a National Science Foundation intern at University of Michigan where he worked on microfluidic devices for assembly and culture of three-dimensional multi-cellular constructs.


Paul Huron
Senior Analyst, Frequency Control Products   
paul@memsjournal.com

Paul has been in the frequency control product business since 1985.  He Joined MF as Director of Operations and Sales.  In 1991 he formed a joint venture with TaiTien.  While growing TaiTien’s sales with North American based companies, he negotiated a manufacturing agreement between TaiTien and AT&T to manufacture their S-type XO’s and a joint development program for 5X7 ceramic oscillators.  In 1998 Paul and Taitien became partners with Vectron, forming VITE as VP of Sales growing sales to $25 million.  In 2003 Vectron acquired VITE and Paul started a sales group within Vectron concentrating on EMS marketplace.  His group grew that business, as a percentage of Vectron sales, from 10% to 42%. Paul left Vectron and joined IDT supporting the sales and marketing on their femtocell, MEMS and crystal-free product while helping integrate Fox electronics.  Paul left Fox in 2014 and has been consulting in the FCP industry.

Sam Segall
Business Development Manager
sam@memsjournal.com

Sam Segall brings a breadth of experience to his role at MEMS Journal.  He most recently led process improvement and business development efforts at Local Motors, a mobility startup.  Prior to that, Sam was a program manager at Tesla Motors, managing improvements to the Model S sedan.  Before Tesla, he managed the consumer finance and reporting process at Apple where he oversaw double digit program growth.  Sam also has experience in project management gleaned from two years at The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.  While there, he helped prepare for Dodd-Frank Act and managed projects ranging from construction to software implementation.  His roots are in manufacturing finance.  He worked for General Motors as an analyst for the Pontiac Assembly Center after graduating Summa Cum Laude from Wayne State University's School of Business Administration with a degree in accounting.


Mårten Vrånes
Director, Consulting Services
mvraanes@memsjournal.com

Mr. Mårten Vrånes has a significant track record as an engineer, operations manager and  company founder.  His career in the MEMS industry began in Norway, at SensoNor, ASA, where he was instrumental in new product introduction and ramp-up of automotive sensors (specifically TPMS) into high-volume manufacturing.   Tasks ranged from product characterization, custom test system development and production yield improvement.  As the Director of Test Operations and Product Engineering at the prestigious Bay Area start-up, LV sensors, Inc., Mr. Vrånes was responsible for sourcing the entire multi-million dollar final test production park and for setting up the necessary infrastructure designed to test more than 10 million sensors per year.  In 2009, he founded Consensic, Inc. and received Series A funding for the development of a micro-barometer.  At Consensic, Mr. Vrånes has personally designed and developed the entire test system platform - ranging from MEMS die characterization to low-volume production test systems.

Mr. Vrånes holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering (EE) from both Agder University, Norway and Fachhochschule Kiel, Germany, a Master’s Degree in Computer Integrated Manufacture (CIM) from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia and an MBA from the University of Queensland, Australia.  He resides in Marin County, California with his wife and four young children.


Don McCullough
Market Research Analyst
don@memsjournal.com

Don graduated from the ILR School at Cornell University in 2015.  After leaving Cornell he attended Wake Forest University School of Business on a full merit-based scholarship where he graduated with distinction.  While at Cornell University he co-founded Alpha Pack Boxing, was Vice President of Cornell Boxing club, and was a Social Chairman for the Alpha Kappa Chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. While at Wake Forest School of Business he served as a graduate consultant for Cigna Healthcare and Vulcan Materials, he served as a Student Ambassador, and he was a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society.  Don was an entrepreneurial lead of a team in the Fall 2016 NYCRIN I-Corps Cohort.  He is currently conducting primary market research on sensor adoption in smart cities.


Steven Olson
Analyst, Microfluidic Technologies
steven@memsjournal.com

Steven Olson has a master's degree in Physics from the University of Alberta with a thesis studying the time dependent formation of the electrical double layer in saline solutions in microfluidic devices.  He also worked on integrating micro electrodes into microfluidic devices to be used for cell detection at the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  Steven's expertise is on processing glass based microfluidic devices.  Besides device processing, he has conducted numerical simulations to model the time dependent formation of the electrical double layer in microfluidic devices to compliment physical experiments.


Miron Shamban
Director, Materials and Nanotechnology
miron@memsjournal.com

Mr. Shamban has with over 18 years of experience in supplying industry with high technology solutions to the growing demand for rare earth and refractory metals and specialty alloys.  As the former President of Arris International, Inc. and Vice President of Great Western Technologies Inc., Miron has established a world wide supply chain for specialty materials such as powders, foils, alloys and oxides.  His knowledge brings considerable breadth to the type of projects currently being carried out by MEMS Journal.  A native of the former Soviet Union, Mr. Shamban also brings to MEMS Journal an extensive network of contacts in Russia, Central Asia, China and Eastern Europe.


John Williamson
Contributing Editor
jwilliamson@memsjournal.com

John Williamson has been writing for MEMS Investor Journal since 2008.  A graduate of Penn State University, John's career has focused on business-to-business marketing communications for technology-related companies.  Previously, John served as a corresponding editor for Design News and CleanRooms magazines.  John lives in Lebanon, New Jersey.


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