About Us

	AustinChips was started in the fall of 1999 by Stephen Straus, Jim Clardy, Wayne Kinnison, and Brian Gardner. Stephen provided the vision for the organization. He saw a software culture in Austin where vibrant new ideas sprang to life, and felt a similar culture should exist in the semiconductor industry quarters of Austin. Stephen enlisted the help of Jim Clardy, long-time CEO of one of Austin's first and most successful entrepreneurial semiconductor companies, Crystal Semiconductor.
	One of the problems with the Austin semiconductor scene is that there is little networking. People don't know one another; they don't know about all the cool work being done right here in the Capital of Texas. So networking is key, and Jim has worked hard to bring together professionals from so many different companies.
	Wayne has provided his keen organizational skills and intellect, coordinating most of the key events. Brian has provided the marketing vision, as well as his insight as a 19-year veteran of the semiconductor business in Austin. Caryn Pratt joined AustinChips in the summer of 2000, bringing with her a wealth of marketing and communications expertise.
	To date, AustinChips has provided momentum (beer) and a forum (place to drink the beer) for networking events. Additionally, the organization holds panel discussions, market analyses, and tutorials on subjects important to the entrepreneurial-minded semiconductor professionals in Austin.

Founding Group Bios

	Stephen Straus brings to AustinChips a wealth of knowledge of the semiconductor industry. In 1996, he joined Austin Ventures as a Kauffman Fellow. Currently, as a partner of the firm, he spearheads the semiconductor initiative. Prior to joining Austin Ventures, Stephen was founder and CEO of The Solutions Group, in Washington, DC, from 1987 to 1993. The Solutions Group was acquired by DC-based ALG in 1992. Most recently he was an Associate with LG Group Venture Capital in San Jose, California. Stephen graduated cum laude from Colgate University and received a masters in business administration from Harvard Business School. In his role at Austin Ventures, Stephen has worked with companies such as Agere, Alchemy Semiconductor, Cygnal Integrated Products, Extreme Devices, Banderacom, Interactive Silicon, Silicon Labs, Silicon Metrics and Surgient Networks. Stephen is also a member of the University of Texas College of Engineering Foundation Advisory Council.
	James Clardy is a venture partner at Austin Ventures and is part of the firm's semiconductor initiative. Prior to Austin Ventures, he was a co-founder of Crystal Semiconductor, acting as CEO from 1984 through 1997. During that time, he managed the merger of Crystal Semiconductor with Cirrus Logic in 1992, and managed the wholly owned subsidiary through 1997. Prior to co-founding Crystal Semiconductor, Clardy was vice president of Harris Semiconductor, where he was responsible for worldwide operations including manufacturing, engineering and administrative activities. Before joining Harris Semiconductor, he spent 21 years with Texas Instruments in various senior management positions. Clardy received a Lifetime Achievement in Technology Award from the Austin Chapter of the American Electronics Association in 1997, and in 1995 he was honored as Entrepreneur of the Year in Austin, Texas, for his work at Crystal Semiconductor. Since 1998, he has been a venture partner with Austin Ventures as part of the firm's semiconductor initiative. Clardy holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee.
	Brian Gardner is a 20-year semiconductor industry veteran. He has been Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at two startups in Austin since 1999: OmegaBand, Inc. (an InfiniBand equipment company) and Interactive Silicon (a fabless semiconductor company.) Prior to Interactive Silicon, Brian spent 18 years at Motorola, rising to General Manager. As General Manager of the microcontroller division, Brian led his division to sales in excess of $300M/year and helped build the 68HC05 microcontroller into a dominate architecture with sales of over 3 billion units. Brian has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University.
	Wayne Kinnison is currently leading a small startup company, Best IT Source, which provides both equipment and consulting to small businesses desiring to better utilize the potential of the internet. Prior to that, he spent 23 years as a research physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. At LANL he was a leader of major international projects which included development of several full custom ICs and ASICs for advanced real-time applications. Wayne's last position was LANL Program Director for the PHENIX Experiment. PHENIX was built at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in New York by a team of several hundred physicists and engineers from 10 countries on 4 continents. Prior to PHENIX Wayne was the United States Project Director for the construction of the data acquisition electronics for a silicon microvertex detector that was incorporated into a large international high-energy physics experiment headed by Nobel laureate Sam Ting and built at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Wayne has authored over 175 papers on elementary particle physics and nuclear instrumentation and has been a keynote speaker and organizer of numerous international particle physics conferences. Wayne has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago and masters and bachelor degrees in physics from the University of Texas at Arlington.
	Ravi Srinivasan has over 12 years semiconductor industry experience in design and product management roles. As a Product Manager for Consulting Service at Synopsys, he is responsible for the implementation service offerings, world-wide. Prior to Synopsys, Ravi spent 9 years at Texas Instruments managing the next-generation DSP design team for wireless platform, leading the integration of Pentium-class Processor, and designing several ASICs for the F-16 and F-22 programs. Ravi received a masters in business administration from Purdue University in May 2001. He also has a masters of science degree in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University and bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington.