Management
Jim Weldon – Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder
Jim Weldon brings over 29 years of technology management and expertise to Solar Junction. Before leading the founding team through funding rounds, he was the Chief Operating Officer of Translucent, Inc. of Palo Alto, CA, a materials research company. Prior to Translucent, Jim was Vice President of the Advanced Products Division at Epion Corporation and Vice President of Business Development and Technology at Veeco Instruments for 25 years. Veeco Instruments is a Semiconductor Process and Metrology Equipment company. While at Veeco, he held many senior and executive management positions within Sales, Operations, Technology, Business Development and Corporate Development. He ran West Coast operations and the Veeco Technology Center for 10 years. His technical background assisted him in driving business, as well as merger and acquisitions activities. Jim executed due diligence on half a dozen major acquisitions for Veeco. Throughout his career, his main focus is to drive new technology into the market place. As a seasoned veteran, Jim has served on several Technical Advisory Boards, Executive Steering Committees and is on the Board of Directors for Solar Junction and Alliphant. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Merrimack College and graduate studies in Biomedical Engineering.
Ivan Fujihara – Vice President, Finance & Corporate Controller
Ivan Fujihara has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, including roles as CFO, Corporate Controller and Senior Financial Analyst. Before coming to Solar Junction, Ivan was CEO and Co-Founder of SIFF Investment Services, Inc. since 2004, he created and perfected the unique blend of financial planning and real estate investment services offered by his company. Ivan also worked as General Manager and CFO of THX, Ltd. (Lucas Film), and Creative Labs, NetGravity, MetricTest and VeriFone. He has operated his own small tax business since 1985. Ivan has a BS degree from the University of Hawaii and an MBA in Corporate Finance from Golden Gate University. He is an Advisory Board Member of Golden Gate University School of Business and is currently serving on the Board of Directors as the Vice-Chair for Lincoln Child Center, a nationally respected, multi-service organization for vulnerable and emotionally troubled children and their families.
Homan Yuen – Vice President Research & Development, Co-Founder
Dr. Homan Yuen brings extensive hands-on experience growing and characterizing devices by MBE for a wide range of applications including solar cells, optoelectronics, silicon photonics, and CMOS electronics. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford University for developing the dilute nitride material system (particularly GaInNAsSb) for semiconductor laser diodes. These laser diodes had the best performance for long-wavelength lasers on GaAs due to the highest quality dilute nitride material. Homan also held a senior research position at Translucent Inc. developing rare-earth oxides by MBE. He brings over nine years of experience in materials science and device technology with over 50 technical publications.
Vijit Sabnis – Vice President Technology, Co-Founder
Dr. Vijit Sabnis has over 15 years of hands-on experience with III-V optoelectronic device design, wafer processing, and characterization. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University for developing III-V photonic switches for optical routers and wavelength conversion applications. Vijit also held a senior research position at Translucent, Inc where he was principal investigator on the DARPA EPIC program investigating applications of rare-earth oxides for CMOS-integrable optical amplifiers and lasers. He holds over 15 publications and 4 patents.
Michael Wiemer – Vice President Device Development, Co-Founder
Dr. Michael Wiemer brings over 12 years of hands-on semiconductor device design & fabrication experience to the Solar Junction team. He has designed, fabricated, and tested a wide variety of optoelectronic devices and structures made from Silicon, Germanium, and III-V materials. Such devices include various kinds of lasers, high sensitivity photodetectors, solar cells, and optical waveguide devices. Mike received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University where he worked on novel device designs and applications for multi-GHz mode-locked III-V semiconductor lasers. He holds 5 technical publications and 2 patents.
Richard Chicotka – Vice President, Engineering
Dr. Richard Chicotka is a hands-on seasoned technical professional whose background encompasses fundamental research and development of compound III-V semiconductors, advances development of multiple technologies, as well as semiconductor, data storage and capital equipment manufacturing. Richard has over 40 years of experience in engineering and operations management receiving many honors and achievements. He was Vice President of Operations and Engineering at CVC, a capital equipment manufacturer. During his time at CVC, Richard worked on equipment for data storage, photonics and semiconductors. When CVC was acquired by Commonwealth Scientific, he managed new product introduction for the ion beam technology for the data storage and photonics industry. Prior to his time at CVC, he held several senior management positions during his 30 years at IBM within the engineering and operations field, especially focused on the quick turn line and data storage. As a capital equipment industry veteran, Richard has worked in several fields like research and development, manufacturing, advanced development for engineering, marketing and government relations. He has held several senior level and executive management position throughout his career at IMB, Seagate Technologies, Conner Peripherals, CVC and Veeco Instruments. He brings his experience in semiconductor science and technology to Solar Junction, as well as over 40 technical publications and 24 patents.
Jeff Allen – Vice President of Business Development
Jeff Allen brings over 18 years of experience leading and executing successful commercialization of renewable energy and semiconductor products. Most recently, he drove revolutionary semiconductor equipment to large-scale adoption as senior business development executive at Lam Research and as General Manager at Komico's Sosul division. Prior to Komico, Jeff managed sales and marketing at industry leading companies including KLA-Tencor, Veeco Instruments, Therma-wave and Nanonex. Jeff has excelled as a product evangelist and strategic business development leader through his combination of broad business expertise and in-depth technical knowledge. Jeff has a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from San Jose State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Phoenix.