ON Partners Recruits CEO for Odyssey Semiconductor Technologies
May 10, 2022 – Tim Conti and Alex Pelak of ON Partners have assisted in the recruitment of Mark Davidson as the new CEO of Odyssey Semiconductor Technologies in Ithaca, NY. He succeeds Rick Brown, the company’s co-founder, who served as interim CEO since September of last year. “Mark is known for his versatility to transform businesses into highly successful operations – having spent nearly 20 years working in Silicon Valley,” said Mr. Brown. “When I met Mark, I knew that he was the right leader for us to realize the vision we had when Odyssey was founded and that his leadership and experience will help our company achieve its full potential.”
“Mark joins Odyssey at an exciting time for the company,” said John Edmunds, chairman of the board. “Odyssey is on-track to deliver 1,200 V vertical GaN FETs in 2022 for a handful of customers who have already requested engineering samples.”
Mr. Davidson joins the company as an experienced growth leader. He most recently served as chief revenue officer of DreamVu, where he led commercialization and spearheaded revenue generation from scratch. He led the global sales expansion through his vast knowledge of global markets. Prior to that, Mr. Davidson served as CEO of Range Networks, where he pivoted the company’s business model based on Range Networks’ technology leadership and the market opportunity. Mr. Davidson also brings experience in the power semiconductor space. He previously served as Intel Corp.’s (through Intel’s acquisition of Altera Corp.) VP/general manager of the global power products business organization, where he directed the transformation of a start-up company into a hyper-growth enterprise. Additionally, he has served as Texas Instruments’ regional sales and applications engineering director, National Semiconductor’s marketing director/product line director, Visteon Corp.’s Australian customer liaison engineer, and Ford Motor Co.’s product design engineer.
“I am excited to work closely with the board of directors and passionate employees as we grow and create value for our customers and shareholders,” said Mr. Davidson. “The time for GaN is now, and we are confident that Odyssey’s approach with vertical GaN will be appreciated and widely adopted by the market.”
Odyssey Semiconductor Technologies has developed a proprietary technology that is designed to allow for GaN to replace SiC as the leading high-voltage power switching semiconductor material. The company owns and operates a 10,000 square feet semiconductor wafer manufacturing facility complete with a mix of class 1,000 and class 10,000 clean space as well as tools for advanced semiconductor development and production.
Top-Ranked Recruiters
With a primary focus on technology, consumer, industrial, and the life science sectors, ON Partners recruits C-level and board talent for public and private companies, as well as venture capital and private equity firms. Founded in 2006, the firm’s consultants work from offices in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA; Minneapolis. MN; San Francisco; and New York. ON Partners is one of the fastest growing search firms and this year is ranked as one of the Top 20 recruiting platforms in the nation by Hunt Scanlon Media.
Related: 2022 Hunt Scanlon Recruiter Rankings’ Special Issue
Mr. Conti, who has worked in executive search for more than 15 years, has completed upwards of 150 C-level and board searches across a range of industries. His focus is on public, private equity and venture capital organizations. Mr. Conti also serves as a member of the ON Partners executive committee.
As a consultant, Mr. Pelak has a strong focus in technology, aerospace and defense, and industrial. His recent work includes senior-level placements for lidar, photonics, semiconductor, advanced materials, and consumer electronics clients.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
