Tech veteran Kispert to chair Allied Minds subsidiary

Allied Minds announced on Monday that its subsidiary, Spin Transfer Technologies, had appointed John Kispert as the independent chairman of its board of directors.

The London-listed firm said Kispert had held a number of executive and board positions during his more-than-20 years in the memory and semiconductor industries.

He was CEO of Spansion, where he guided the company through a period of “significant” sales growth and margin expansion, including the acquisition of a division of Fujitsu Microelectronics, to its eventual sale to Cypress Semiconductor in March 2015.

Before that, Kispert spent 13 years at KLA-Tencor, including as president, COO and CFO, and reportedly helped transform the semiconductor equipment company from $300m to more than $3bn in annual revenues.

Prior to his time at KLA-Tencor, he held several management positions at IBM.

“John has a stellar global reputation built on a demonstrable track record of success in driving commercial traction, licensing IP, and ultimately in creating and crystallizing value for shareholders,” said Allied Minds chief executive officer Jill Smith.

“The STT management team is fortunate to have access to John's guidance, counsel and network at this critical juncture in the commercialization of its MRAM enabling technologies.”

Kispert also served as an active board member at a series of highly successful technology companies through their acquisitions or IPOs, Allied Minds said.

They included Gigamon, a provider of network traffic visibility solutions; TriNet, a cloud-based professional employer organisation for small and medium-sized businesses; and Barracuda Networks, a security and storage solutions provider.

“I am delighted to join the board of Spin Transfer Technologies, where I see an exciting opportunity to drive commercialization and licensing of its key MRAM-enabling technologies," said Kispert.

“I look forward to applying my knowledge and network for the benefit of the company and its shareholders, and to unlocking the widespread adoption of this faster, lower-power, next-generation memory for consumers and enterprises.”