Management Team
D. Scott Mercer*
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
D. Scott Mercer was appointed chief executive officer of Conexant in April 2008, and was named chairman of the board of directors in August 2008. He currently serves on the boards of Palm, Inc., Polycom, Inc., SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., and Adaptec, Inc., where he is chairman. In 2005, Mercer was named interim chief executive officer at Adaptec. Before that, he spent a total of eight years at Western Digital Corporation in positions that included executive vice president, chief financial and administrative officer, and senior vice president and advisor to the CEO. He also spent a year at TeraLogic, Inc. as chief financial officer, five years at Dell, Inc. in a variety of financial-management positions, and seven years at LSI Logic Corporation, where he was promoted to chief financial officer. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from California Polytechnic University at Pomona, Mercer spent seven years with Price Waterhouse in San Jose, Calif.
Christian Scherp*
President
Christian Scherp was appointed president of Conexant in April 2008. He joined the company in June 2005 and previously served as the company’s senior vice president of Worldwide Sales. Prior to joining the company, he was vice president and general manager of the Wireless/Wireline Communications Group for Infineon Technologies North America. Scherp also served as their vice president of Wireline Communications products marketing, and vice president and general manager of the Communications Group's wide area networking business. Before the spin-off of Infineon from Siemens AG, he held positions in engineering, marketing, and business planning. Scherp holds a master's degree in electrical and electronics engineering, and a master's degree in business administration from the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Sailesh Chittipeddi*
Executive Vice President of Global Operations and Chief Technical Officer
Sailesh Chittipeddi was appointed executive vice president and chief technical officer of Conexant in April 2008. Previously, he served as senior vice president of Global Operations since joining in June 2006. Prior to that, he held several senior operations-related positions with Agere Systems, Lucent Technologies, and AT&T Microelectronics. He also served as Lucent Technologies' representative to SEMATECH, and was a member of the Technical Staff with AT&T Bell Laboratories. Chittipeddi holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin, a master's degree and a doctorate in physics from Ohio State University, and a master's degree in physics from Northern Illinois University. He also holds 59 U.S. patents related to semiconductor process, package, and design, and has authored nearly 40 publications.
Jean Hu*
Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Business Development
Jean Hu was appointed chief financial officer and senior vice president of Business Development in December 2008. She joined Conexant in 1999, and most recently served as senior vice president of Strategy and Business Development, with a broad range of responsibilities and activities that included strategic planning, financial analysis, the development of product and market strategies, investments and alliances, divestitures, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Conexant, Hu held positions of increasing responsibility in corporate financial planning and development with Rockwell International. Before that, she worked as a consultant providing valuation, litigation advisory, and M&A services to a wide range of clients. Hu earned a doctorate in economics from Claremont Graduate School and holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Beijing Chemical Engineering University.
Mark D. Peterson*
Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Secretary
Mark Peterson joined Conexant in March 2008 as senior vice president, chief legal officer, and secretary. Prior to joining the company, he was with Targus Group International, Inc. where he served as senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary. Before that, he spent nearly 10 years with Meade Instruments Corporation, where he held a variety of executive management positions including senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary. He also served as the company's senior vice president of International Operations, and managing director of Meade Europe. In addition, Peterson spent six years as a corporate attorney for the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers, LLP. Peterson earned his J.D. degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds a bachelor's of science degree in Accounting from Brigham Young University's School of Accountancy in Provo, Utah.
Scott L. Allen
Senior Vice President, Communications and Investor Relations
Scott Allen was appointed senior vice president of Communications in June 2003, and assumed responsibility for the company’s Investor Relations efforts in August 2008. He joined Conexant as executive director of public relations in February 2000 and became vice president of Communications in February 2001. Prior to joining Conexant, he was employed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). During his 16 years with AMD, he held positions of increasing responsibility culminating in his most recent assignment as director of worldwide public relations. Allen earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from San Jose State University.
Craig Garen
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Broadband Access
Craig Garen joined Conexant in November 2007 as senior vice president and general manager of the company's Broadband Access business. Previously, he served as senior vice president of LSI Corporation’s Mobility Division. Prior to that, Garen spent five years at Agere Systems. His positions included vice president of engineering for the Telecom Division, and general manager of the company’s Broadband Access business unit. Before Agere, he served as general manager of Client Access for Lucent Technologies’ Microelectronics Group. He also worked for AT&T’s Microelectronics Group, and for AT&T’s Bell Labs. Garen earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Lehigh University, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Lehigh University.
Bernd Lienhard
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Imaging and PC Media
Bernd Lienhard joined Conexant in September 2006 as senior vice president and general manager of the company's Universal Access business. He was previously with Qimonda AG, a spin-out from Infineon Technologies, where he served as vice president of Sales and Marketing. Prior to that, he spent eight years with Infineon in a variety of positions, including vice president and general manager of Advanced Sensors, Automotive and Industrial Business Group. Previously, he spent 10 years with Siemens Semiconductor and Siemens Defense Electronics. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Munich's University of Applied Science in Germany.
Andy Smith
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
Andy Smith was appointed senior vice president of Worldwide Sales in June 2008. He joined Conexant in 1998, and most recently served as vice president of Sales for the Americas. Prior to that, he was director of Set-top Box Sales, and director of East Coast Sales for the company’s former Internet infrastructure business. Before joining Conexant, Smith held a variety of sales-management and sales positions at Trident Microsystems, VLSI Technology, and Texas Instruments. He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
Michael Vishny
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Michael Vishny joined Conexant in January 2002 as senior vice president of Human Resources. Previously he served as human resources vice president and chief human resources officer for U.S. Robotics Corporation, and as vice president of human resources and internal communications for Gateway Computer Corporation's business division. He also served as the Asia-Pacific regional director of human resources for S.C. Johnson, Inc. , and spent six years in various senior management positions with Dun & Bradstreet Corporation/The A.C. Nielsen Company. Vishny earned a master's degree in labor and industrial relations, and a bachelor's degree in business administration, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
* Executive Officers