Another local addition to the executive brass of Skyworks Solutions Inc. points to Orange County’s growing influence at the Woburn, Mass.-based chipmaker.
Kris Sennesael, 47, who recently was tapped as senior vice president and chief financial officer, is based at the company’s expanding Irvine operation at University Research Park. Sennesael, who held similar titles at publicly traded Enphase Energy in Petaluma, replaced Donald Palette, 59, who’s retiring after an eight-year stint as finance chief.
The latest hire is the second prominent local addition to Skyworks’ management team since late May, when the Business Journal reported that incoming Chief Executive Liam Griffin would run the chipmaker from Irvine.
“With executives and members of our senior management team from finance, sales and marketing, operations and technology based in Irvine, we are close to key customers as well as Skyworks’ design and operations facilities in Asia, Mexico and North America—providing us with synergies and competitive advantages,” Griffin said.
Skyworks was OC’s third largest chipmaker in terms of local employment through July behind Broadcom Ltd. in Irvine and TowerJazz in Newport Beach, with 330 workers here.
The local office not only has grown employment since Griffin relocated here in 2011, but has increasingly added corporate personnel, including department heads in sales, marketing, operations, business development, mergers and acquisitions, and quality assurance.
The Irvine office also houses a design center for custom and standard analog and mixed signal semiconductors.
Skyworks’ communication chips are used in smartphones, tablets, routers, PCs and notebook computers, among other devices, including the Nest thermostat by Google Inc. and smart locks by Lake Forest-based Kwikset, the top-selling U.S. residential lock maker.
The Apple Inc. supplier, which has annual sales of more than $3.2 billion, has forged a leadership position in mobile communications amid diversification into the Internet of Things segment, Skyworks’ largest growth market today.
Apple’s main contractor, Foxconn Technology Group, was the only company to account for more than 10% of Skyworks’ revenue in its last fiscal year, according to its annual report. Foxconn and Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest consumer electronics manufacturer, held that distinction the prior two fiscal years.
New Sustainability Course
Sustain OC, which formerly was known as CleanTech OC, will hold its flagship conference this week at its headquarters at University of California-Irvine’s Applied Innovation Center.
The 2016 Sustain OC Conference and Expo on Oct. 13 will feature an array of panels on state and federal funding, recycling, university initiatives, impact investing, microgrids and other issues.
The organization will host several regional exhibitors and announce the Sustain OC Cleantech Company of the Year Award, The Van Vlahakis Sustainability Excellence Award, and a new recognition, The Sustain OC Sustainable Government of the Year Award.
The event, which is in its seventh year, also will provide Sustain OC an opportunity to discuss its new branding initiative and name change to a host of constituents.
“Over the last two years, our membership has drastically grown in large [corporations], local governments and schools with an eye toward the broader picture of sustainability,” Sustain OC Chief Executive Scott Kitcher told the Business Journal. “CleanTech OC wasn’t an adequate descriptor of our membership or increased scope of work. One thing I stress, however, is that clean tech and innovation will continue to be our foundation and cornerstone.”
Security Patent Spat
SPEX Technologies Inc. has filed at least six patent infringement claims in California federal court against Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. and Western Digital Corp., both based in Irvine.
The patents under contention, which originally were granted to San Jose-based encryption security products maker Spyrus Inc., are related to integrated security functions in hard drives, flash drives and other data security devices.
