Reza Kazerounian is an innovative leader who has been recognized for building and managing multibillion-dollar businesses in the Automotive and Industrial sectors, as well as IoT solutions.  He is well known for his work in the areas of microcontrollers, embedded processing, and connectivity.  Reza’s career spans key leadership roles at prominent companies.  Prior to co-founding Alif Semiconductor, Reza was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Microcontroller and Connectivity Business Unit at Atmel Corporation until its acquisition in 2016.  Preceding Atmel, Reza served as SVP and GM of Freescale’s Automotive, Industrial, and Multi-Market Solutions Product Groups with annual revenue exceeding $2.7B, accounting for over 65% of corporate revenue.  Under Reza’s responsibility, this business consisted of the Microcontroller, Connectivity, MEMS sensors, and Analog Product divisions. Prior to Freescale, Reza served key appointments at STMicroelectronics. He served as the CEO of STM Americas region until March 2009. Prior to this, he was the Group Vice President and GM of the Smart Card Security and Programmable Systems Memory Divisions at STM corporate based in Geneva, Switzerland.  Reza holds a B.S. degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, all in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.