Stefan Heck is a Principal in McKinsey’s Silicon Valley office and a leader of the Firm’s Semiconductor and Software Practices.
Stefan focuses on growth strategies, go-to-market strategies, and product development for both technology companies and other
large global corporations focused on enabling or reinventing their business through technology. He has recently lead engagements on:
Growth strategy, including business, technology, alliance, and China strategies
5 semiconductor companies (one startup, 2 IDMs, large foundry, EDA company) and the Semiconductor Industry Association
Product development, including process, metrics, innovation, portfolio management
Development process redesign for 2 semiconductor companies
Platform strategy for the IC business unit of a semiconductor company
Product development redesign, platform strategy, IP strategy for 3 large software companies
Post merger integration of production units for a global media company
Ecommerce and go-to-market strategies
Customer segmentation, pricing, and sales transformation for two semiconductor and two software companies
Growth and private exchange strategy for a B2B platform provider, a global consumer good company, a global apparel company, and a global music company
Strategy, business building, and launch for global B2B exchanges in apparel, electronic components, financial services, electronics, aerospace
Stefan received his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Cognitive Science from UCSD and a B.S. with honors in Symbolic
Systems from Stanford University. Prior to joining McKinsey, he was responsible for developing Apple’s web presence, built
a prototype agent-based satellite image delivery systems for Teleos Research/Lockheed, developed expert systems for IBM,
and developed pattern recognition neural networks at Xerox PARC.
Dr. Sherwani has over 19 years of experience in technical engineering and general management and currently serves as the President and CEO of
Open-Silicon, which he founded to bring cost-effectiveness, predictability and reliability to the ASIC market. Prior to founding Open-Silicon, Dr. Sherwani was the
founder and General Manager of Intel Microelectronics Services, where he led efforts to promote the use of disciplined ASIC methodologies to improve design efficiency
and time-to-market.
Naveed co-developed Athena, the Intel microprocessor design methodology and environment that has been used in the development of various leading microprocessors.
Prior to joining Intel, he worked as a consultant for various telecommunications and computer companies, mainly focusing on ASIC design flow and cell-library design
to improve time-to-market. He also served as a Professor at Western Michigan University, where his research concentrated on VLSI Physical Design Automation, combinatorics,
and graph algorithms.
Dr. Sherwani is the author of the main textbook on Physical Design, “Algorithms for VLSI Physical Design Automation,” which is widely used at major universities
around the world. In addition, he has authored or co-authored 3 books and over 100 articles on various aspects of Physical Design Automation and ASICs.
In the last 15 years, he has been a frequent speaker at DAC, ICCAD, the International Conference on VLSI and other major conferences around the world.
Dr. Sherwani received his Ph.D from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
CVP Business Development & CTO, Worldwide Field Operations
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Aurangzeb Khan is Corporate Vice President for Business Development & CTO in Worldwide Field Operations at
Cadence, where he helps drive business development, contributes to the technology strategy, and leads the design and
silicon engineering practices for Cadence. Earlier, Aurangzeb was CVP/GM for Cadence Design Foundry (now part
of WFO), and focused on the IC design business, including IP development and integration.
Aurangzeb has contributed in engineering and general management positions at Cadence, Simplex, Cirrus Logic,
Tandem Computers (now part of HP) and Fairchild. He has helped deliver several industry-first systems and ICs to
market; he was co-founder, president and CEO at Altius Solutions.
Aurangzeb received an MS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management from Stanford
University, a double-major BS from U.C. Berkeley, in EECS and Nuclear Engineering; and a B.Sc. in Physics and
Mathematics from Government College, University of the Punjab, where he graduated first in class and received the
Academic Roll of Honour.
John Payne is the COO of Alien Technology, Corp. He brings to Alien over 20 years of industry experience
including executive roles in both startups and global technology leaders. Payne most recently served as CEO of Magis
Networks, Inc where he successfully reorganized and sold the Company for a group of Venture investors.
Previously Payne served as a Senior Vice President at Philips Semiconductor where he was responsible for its Digital Consumer
Systems business and Connected Home Strategy. He is credited with building a business around audio/video streaming interoperability
to leverage Philips' analog consumer product market leadership to successfully create demand for its new digital products.
Prior to Philips, Payne was an investor, advisor and board member of various start-up companies guiding venture backed
start-up companies on strategy and management development. Payne has held senior executive positions in a number of
semiconductor companies including serving as President and COO of Rendition, a 3D graphics company, where he developed
and launched three generations of product lines. The company was acquired by Micron. While serving as the Vice President
of Micron's Rendition Division of Micron, he established three design centers utilizing Micron's embedded DRAM process.
As President and COO of Integrated Device Technology (IDT), a high-speed CMOS company, Payne was responsible for eight
business units, as well as sales, marketing, design technology, and quality assurance. Payne increased sales by 40% over two
years and returned the company to profitability. Earlier, as Vice President and General Manager of IDT's Microprocessor/Logic
Division, he managed three business units and developed and implemented an embedded control strategy for RISC microprocessors
bringing several microcontrollers to market.
Payne holds degrees in electrical and electronic engineering, management studies, and marketing.
