10/3/07: NACSA Presents: Clean-Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship in China
NACSA presents:
Clean-Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship in China
Date: Wed, Oct 3, 2007
Time: 7:30PM (7:00 networking), Light snacks and drinks provided.
Venue: Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, Ballroom A
Address: 5101 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA 95054
Google Map
Cost: $10 w/ RSVP
$20 at the door.
RSVP: Please RSVP online by 9/28
China’s tremendous growth is fueled by a commensurate appetite for energy. At the same time, the country is facing an enormous environmental challenge as it prepares to face the world during the 2008 Olympics. What is the solution that allows China to continue to grow without polluting the air and water? The answer is obvious – clean, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass.
China has become a major world player in renewable energy, in particular solar energy. (NACSA hosted an event focusing on the solar industry in China last October.) However, the growth has been primarily in manufacturing based on lower costs. What about China as an innovator for clean-tech? How do innovators in China stack up against the high-profile start-ups in the US or Europe? When will China become a major consumer of renewable energy instead of just a supplier? These are exciting questions for technologists and investors to follow.
As a part of a continuing series on solar and clean-tech, NACSA has invited a panel of outstanding speakers to offer different perspectives on answering these questions.
Entrepreneur Perspective – Dr. Zheng Xu, founder and CEO of Sierra Solar, an innovative thin-film startup, will share with us his insight and experiences as an entrepreneur and as an innovator both in the US and in China.
Investment Perspective – Mr. Richard Lim, Managing Director of GSR Ventures will high-light hot areas that investors are currently focused on and what investors look for when they evaluate an innovative start-up.
Legal Perspective – Mr. Paul Sieben, Corporate Counsel from O’Melveny will focus on the differences between startups in China versus their US counterparts and share experiences of how his firm has guided startups through the legal minefields.
Innovation Perspective – Prof. Peter Peumans, Stanford University will share with us some of the latest in research and innovation to improve efficiency and drive down costs.
NACSA invites its members and other professionals with interests in solar technology and entrepreneurship to join us for this exciting discussion. To learn more about NACSA and this event, please refer to our website: www.nacsa.com.
Speaker’s Bios:
Dr. Zheng Xu, CEO and Founder, Sierra Solar Power Inc.
Dr. Xu founded Sierra Solar Power Inc with a vision to make solar electricity more affordable through high volume automatic production and improved solar cell conversion efficiency.
Prior to Sierra Solar Power, Dr. Xu was an executive at Applied Materials, Inc. for 15 years. Most recently, he was corporate vice president and general manager of CPI products business group, a metal thin film products group in Applied Materials. In his role, Dr. Xu spearheaded the development, the market penetration, and the manufacturing cost reduction of leading edge thin film products such as Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD) and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). By 2006, the CPI business group significantly improved product differentiation, market momentum, and business performance, and achieved > $1.2B revenue, with 73% market share in metal thin film market and >55% gross margin. Recently, Dr. Xu also initiated the new product development in Xi’an, China, built the team and infrastructure, and developed the first 300mm semiconductor equipment in China.
Dr. Xu joined Applied Materials in 1992 as a process engineer; he was a team member of an internal startup, the PVD products division. During his tenure, he advanced rapidly from technology manager, senior manager, director, managing director, general manager of metal CVD division, general manager of PVD division, and vice president.
Dr. Xu began his career at Toshiba Corporation as a thin film engineer after he received his Ph.D. in materials science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He also owns a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Osaka University in Japan. He received his B.S. in semiconductor devices from Zhejiang University in China. Author of numerous technical papers, Dr. Xu holds 69 US patents and 13 US patents pending.
Mr. Richard Lim, Managing Director, Mayfield China (GSR Ventures)
One of the founding Managing Directors of Mayfield China (GSR Ventures). Richard is an entrepreneur and focuses on early stage investments in the semiconductor and internet sectors. He is currently on the boards of Baihe, Mobert, Qunar, Sierra Solar, and UiTV. Richard was previously founding CEO of iMarket (acquired by Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) and Co-nect (acquired by Pearson (NYSE:PSO)). He was also involved in founding Quickdot and was an executive at Lotus Development Corporation. Richard has an MBA from Stanford University.
Mayfield China/GSR Ventures is one of the most active early stage investors in the semiconductor industry in China. Investments include companies in consumer products (Mobert, PLM and SMIT), clean technology (LatticePower, Sierra Solar) and logistics (Quantum Radio)
Mr. Paul Sieben, Corporate Counsel, O’Melveny & Myers, LLP
Paul Sieben is a counsel in O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s Silicon Valley office and a member of the Firm’s Transactions Department and Corporate Practice. Paul specializes in corporate and securities law. He has extensive experience with various types of transactions, including representing issuers, investors and underwriters in mergers and acquisitions, spin-off and buyout transactions, venture capital financings, recapitalizations, public equity offerings and private debt offerings.
Paul also counsels both private and public technology and emerging growth companies with respect to securities law and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and other corporate governance matters, and he serves as a member of the Firm’s corporate governance committee. Paul further represents such entities on a variety of other matters, including formation, founders’ agreements, securities offerings, equity restructuring and buybacks and other general corporate matters. He also represents a large number of venture capital firms and investment banks in various securities and transactional matters.
He has served as lead counsel on more than 150 venture capital and private equity financings, over twenty-five merger and acquisition transactions ranging in size from $1 million to over $2 billion and a large number of recapitalizations, public offerings and other transactions.
Paul’s clients include companies in a wide range of technology markets. He has substantial experience with companies in the semiconductor, security, storage, electronic design automation and enterprise software markets, and has significant experience with investments in life science companies. Paul also has significant experience representing Cayman entities doing business in China.
Professor Peter Peumans, Stanford University
Peter Peumans obtained his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 2004 and is now an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering conducting research in renewable energy. He is an expert in organic and inorganic device modeling, fabrication and characterization. He has developed several efficient solar cell device architectures and has contributed to today's understanding of the mechanisms that play a role in organic solar cells. Peumans also contributed to the development of vapor phase deposition techniques that lend themselves to reel-to-reel processing of organic and organic/inorganic nanocomposite solar cells. Two of Dr. Peumans' publications are in the top-20 cited papers in the field of solar cells. He holds 10 patents and has 5 or more pending. He is a co- founder and the Chief Scientific Advisor of NetCrystal, a Silicon Valley startup focusing on low-cost microconcentrator solar cells using a technology developed by Peumans' group at Stanford. Dr. Peumans is also on the advisory board of Soltaix. Prof. Peumans is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award.
About NACSA:
Founded in 1996 by a group of semiconductor professionals in the Silicon Valley, North America Chinese Semiconductor Association (NACSA) is a professional organization dedicated to the advancement of exchange and collaboration among Chinese professionals in semiconductor and related high-tech industries.
Riding the tide of globalization, the community of Chinese engineers and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and China has enjoyed a tremendous growth in recent years. Through event hosting, networking, and information sharing, NACSA has been instrumental in helping build a vibrant high-tech professional community serving the needs of these professionals. With over 4,000 members, NACSA is currently one of the largest and most active Chinese professional organizations in the US. NACSA members come from diverse fields in semiconductor and other high-tech related industries, including makers of optional devices, semiconductor chips, and PCs; system manufacturers; equipment manufacturers; design house; software; etc.
Committed to sharing information and resources and serving as a bridge between the US and China high-tech communities, NACSA’s mission is to strengthen networking among professionals, foster entrepreneurship in ethnic Chinese, and promote the exchange in the semiconductor and related high-tech industries. At NACSA, we believe in learning by doing and contributing before receiving.
Past NACSA seminar speakers include prominent CEOs, senior executives, and entrepreneurs from such well-known companies as Intel, Applied Materials, Cadence, MIPS Technology, Spreadtrum, UMC, TSMC, Go2Silicon, ViMicro, Broadcom Inc., Cypress Semiconductor, Keysi International, SH Zhangjiang, HK Science & Technology Parks, Goldman Sachs, and many others. NACSA seminars are well received and well attended with an average audience size of 300. Besides seminars and discussion forums, NACSA also hosts Spring/Summer picnic and forms special task teams. Each year, NACSA organizes delegations to China and hosts meetings with visiting high-tech delegations from China.
Please refer to our website for more information: www.nacsa.com
