2026 CMC Conference

Angel Siordia

Angel Siordia is a Territory Manager at Applied Seals North America Global. His background includes military service as a Field Service Technician, working on multiple defense platforms. After completing his military service, he transitioned into sales and business development .He assists IDMs, OEMs, and material suppliers in sea optimization. Working with end users and material development teams across the globe to enhance seal performance and reliability. He works on traceability initiatives, specializing in sealing solutions, data collection, and global supply chain.

Ben Sell

Ben Sell is Vice President and General Manager of Logic Technology Development at Intel, where he leads strategic planning and advanced technology development initiatives. With more than 23 years of experience at Intel, Ben brings deep expertise across logic and specialized semiconductor technologies. Earlier in his career, Ben worked at Infineon Technologies, contributing to DRAM development.

Brianna Dufek

Brianna Dufek is a chemist at Elemental Scientific, Inc. since 2019. She has specialized in automating organic contaminant determination in semiconductor-grade chemicals utilizing a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QTOF MS). Her focus has been on developing online techniques to detect ppt level organic contaminants utilizing ESI’s advanced automation. Brianna received her B.S. at Creighton University in Omaha, NE.

Craig North

Craig North is the Senior Director of Research, Development and Engineering for Advanced Deposition Materials at Entegris, where he leads innovation and global programs for next-generation semiconductor materials. With over a decade of experience spanning Entegris, Delphon, and EMD Electronics, he has driven R&D, product strategy, and commercial growth across advanced deposition technologies and specialty gases.

George Alajajian

George Alajajian is the Vice President of Strategic Parts Supply Chain at Intel. He joined the Foundry and Construction Sourcing organization at the beginning of 2020, and is responsible for shaping Intel’s parts supply chain network to deliver world class parts performance for quality, availability, cost and cycle time to Technology Development and High-Volume Manufacturing operations. George has more than 25 years of industry experience, with 20+ years in senior executive positions in the semiconductor capital equipment industry.

James Damico

James is a results-driven procurement professional with more than 12 years of experience leading global sourcing strategies, procurement transformation initiatives, and technology enablement across complex organizations. He currently serves as Senior Program Manager for Digital Sourcing, Technology, and Operations at onsemi, where he focuses on modernizing procurement capabilities and driving operational excellence. Previously, he spent over a decade at Intel as a Global Sourcing Category Manager and Program Manager, supporting large-scale sourcing and transformation programs. He holds an MBA from Michigan State University’s Broad School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance from SUNY Albany.

James Sanders

James Sanders is a Senior Analyst at TechInsights with over 5 years of experience as an industry analyst, and 7 years of experience as a technology journalist. Before joining TechInsights, James worked as a Research Analyst on the Cloud Transformation team at 451 Research where he led the analysis of quantum computing hardware and software, quantum sensing, quantum networking, and the applicable use cases and industry impact of quantum technologies. He also developed thought leadership reports on quantum computing, cloud resource management, and the environmental sustainability of cloud computing.

Jason McNichols

Jason McNichols the Technical Sales and Business Development Director for Portland, OR-based High Purity Products. He has 26 years of industry experience in Defect, Diffusion and Wet Etch process Engineering at 3 local Portland-area fabs and has been in his current role at HPP for 8 years. Jason has 3 US patents for Defect inspection-related topics, and has been given internal technology awards for novel innovations in wet etch. His passion is bringing his fab process knowledge to a new generation of Fab engineers as well as HPP’s wide customer base: solving problems over selling products.

Kade McGarrity

Kade McGarrity is a Product and Process Design Engineer working for Momentive Technologies on boron nitride powders and densified boron nitride shapes. He started working for Momentive in 2022 after receiving his PhD from Alfred University in Materials Science and Engineering with a focus on non-oxide ceramics. At Momentive, Kade drives new BN powder product development through experimentation and analysis of powder characteristics and performance in thermal management applications.

Karey Holland

Karey is a Technical Strategist & Sr. Analyst of Litho Materials at TechInsights. She has specialized in advanced semiconductor transistor fabrication, including metrology, CMP, ALD & CVD, photolithography, and interconnect technologies for over 30 years. She was CTO of start-up NexPlanar, strategic marketing senior manager at FEI, on the Board of Directors at Nova Measuring Instruments, VP of technology at CMP pad supplier Thomas West, and CTO and VP of process technology at CMP OEM IPEC/SpeedFam-IPEC. Previously, she was manager of manufacturing planning for Motorola’s Microprocessor and Memory Technology Group. Her career began in process engineering at IBM where she managed DUV lithography technology development, and worked on interconnect integration for 4 and 16 Mb DRAMs, which were the first chips in the world to use tungsten plugs and CMP for all interconnect dielectrics.

Kevin Heidrich

Kevin has worked in the semiconductor industry for 30 years with a focus on semiconductor process and process integration, capital equipment, manufacturing systems, and related products and services. Kevin was formerly employed at Onto Innovation (the merger of Nanometrics Incorporated and Rudolph Technologies in 2019) holding the title of SVP, Corporate Development & Marketing. Prior to Onto, Kevin was employed at Nanometrics, from April 2006 holding the title of SVP Marketing & Business Development. He was responsible for product marketing, corporate strategy, and M&A. Kevin began his career working in process engineering at Intel and spent 10 years working in Logic Technology Development in Portland Oregon.

Kurtis Fairley

Kurtis has degrees in both Chemistry and Physics from Pacific Lutheran University followed by a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Oregon. He worked in the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry, focused on turning research into start ups. He spent time working in a biotech spin out, Nemametrix, then entered into Semiconductors working at Edwards. His focus has been on collaborating with OEMs/IDMs to develop new solutions for next generation semiconductor processes as an Applications Engineer, Technical Program Manager, North America Innovation Center Manager, and Director of Technical Programs North America.

Lita Shon-Roy

Lita Shon-Roy is President of Market Analysis with over 30 years of experience across the semiconductor supply chain in strategy, business development, marketing, and sales. She has held key roles at companies such as RASIRC/Matheson Gases, Air Products, and Hughes Aircraft, and is recognized as a leading expert in electronic materials market analysis. Widely published and quoted in outlets including the Wall Street Journal and BBC News, she holds an MBA from CSU Dominguez Hills, an MSEE from USC, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from UC San Diego.

Ralph Dammel

Ralph R. Dammel received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt/FRG in 1986. He has worked for EMD Electronics, the Electronics business of Merck KGaA Darmstadt Germany, in the US, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Germany and is currently employed as Technology Fellow in the Chief Technology Office (CTO).Dr. Dammel is the author of over 200 scientific papers in chemistry and microlithography and is an inventor on about 500 patents in over 110 patent families in the field. His monograph “Diazonaphthoquinone-based Resists” is generally recognized as the definitive book on the subject. In spring 2009, Dr. Dammel was elected as SPIE Fellow. He received the Photopolymer Science and Technology Outstanding Achievement Award in June 2011, SPIE’s Frits Zernicke Award for Microlithography in February 2015, and Merck KGaA’s Science Award in 2020.

Robert Goodin

Robert Goodin is a Mineral Commodity Specialist for the National Minerals Information Center within the United States Geological Survey. As a Mineral Commodity Specialist, he tracks and analyzes a variety of semiconductor– and oil– and gas-related mineral commodities with a focus on understanding supply-demand dynamics, market risks, and vulnerabilities within mineral supply chains. His work involves close collaboration with multiple defense and intelligence agencies to help strengthen U.S. mineral supply chains.

Shari Liss

Shari Liss is a seasoned professional with over 25 years in workforce development and tech education, is currently the driving force as Vice President of Global Workforce Development and Initiatives at SEMI. In this role, she focuses on leading impactful workforce development programs and initiatives for the microelectronics industry that span over 3800 global companies. Under Shari’s dynamic leadership, SEMI has successfully launched numerous national and global workforce development initiatives. She has secured significant funding to drive programs that enhance industry image and focus on attracting people from all different backgrounds and experiences to the sector. With a profound commitment to shaping the future of tech education, Shari’s current role at SEMI exemplifies her dedication to addressing critical workforce needs and fostering cross-sector partnerships that bridge industry, academia, community-based organizations, and the workforce.

Simon Elliott

Dr. Simon Elliott is a pioneer in applying atomic-scale models to the surface chemistry of materials deposition and etch. Before joining Schrödinger as product manager for the semiconductor sector, he studied chemistry in Ireland and Germany, and led a research group at Tyndall National Institute in Ireland. He was the 2023 recipient of the ALD Innovator Award.

Sriram Ramamoorthy

Sriram Ramamoorthy is a staff supply chain engineer in Intel’s Global Material Organization managing filtration and chemicals. He has been with Intel for 10 years, 5 years in Wet Etch Technology Development. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engg from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Stephen Russell

Stephen is the Senior Technical Fellow for Sustainability at TechInsights, offering expertise on carbon impact across the full technology life cycle, with deep insight into semiconductor manufacturing process flows and associated emissions With over 20 years in semiconductors, he is an internationally recognized researcher. He was awarded best paper for the IEEE Journal Transactions on Power Electronics paper “High Temperature Electrical and Thermal Aging Performance and Application Considerations for SiC power DMOSFETs”. He led an exploratory research project in gallium oxide for power devices, presenting findings to the Royal Institution, London. While working in industry, he led the development of a new silicon IGBT product line and instigated a research and development project to use silicon carbide JFETs in circuit protection applications.

Xiangyu Guo

Xiangyu works as Technology Program Manager at Air Liquide Advanced Materials, specializing in advanced and sustainable etch chemistry for semiconductor manufacturing processes. At the current role, Xiangyu is focusing on the technical and strategic development of innovative etching gases tailored for the industry’s most demanding nodes. By collaborating directly with global semiconductor leaders, he is tasked with delivering innovative solutions that bridge the gap between technical excellence and customer’s urgent sustainability mandates. Xiangyu holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from University of Wisconsin – Madison

Yaming Jiang

Yaming Jiang is a materials scientist and chemical engineer with expertise in polymer physics and electronic materials. She earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where her research focused on polyelectrolyte complexation and polymer structure–property relationships. Since joining the Marlborough, Massachusetts site in 2018 under Qnity, Dr. Jiang has led critical raw material scale up and commercialization efforts for advanced electronic materials. Her work spans new product development of photo imageable dielectrics, translation of polymer science into manufacturable technologies, and cross functional leadership supporting next generation interconnect and packaging applications. She is currently a Technical Manager in R&D, driving material innovation and applications for advanced packaging.

Mark Dante

Mark Dante is Semiconductor Market Manager at Syensqo, where he leads global strategy for high-performance fluoropolymer solutions used in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. His work focuses on enabling next-generation device fabrication through materials that meet the industry’s most demanding requirements for purity, chemical resistance, process reliability, and sustainability. With more than 15 years of experience spanning materials science, process engineering, product management, and commercial strategy, Mark brings a comprehensive perspective on the critical role advanced materials play across the semiconductor value chain. At Syensqo, he works closely with customers and ecosystem partners to align fluoropolymer innovation with evolving technology nodes and supply chain resilience initiatives. Prior to Syensqo, Mark held leadership roles in product management and advanced manufacturing and began his career developing high-performance materials for energy storage, solar, and membrane technologies. Mark holds a Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from UC Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University.

Babak Sabi

Babak Sabi is a veteran of the semiconductor industry with a career spanning more than four decades of technical and executive leadership. As the Founder of Sabi Tech Advisory LLC, he provides strategic counsel to global technology firms at the intersection of silicon manufacturing, advanced packaging, and cloud-scale AI infrastructure. Dr. Sabi’s career is defined by his long-standing tenure at Intel Corporation, where he served in several of the company’s most critical technical and operational roles. As Senior Vice President and General Manager of Assembly Test Technology Development (ATTD), he led the industrialization of the industry’s first 2.5D and 3D heterogeneous integration technologies. Crucially, Dr. Sabi also held a primary leadership role within Intel’s Corporate Quality Network (CQN). In this capacity, he was responsible for the rigorous quality and reliability standards required for high-volume manufacturing across multiple process nodes. His dual expertise in both cutting-edge technology development and corporate quality systems provided the foundation for Intel’s global manufacturing excellence. Following his 40-year career at Intel, Dr. Sabi most recently served as Vice President of Technology at AWS (Annapurna Labs), where he oversaw the hardware engineering requirements for the world’s largest cloud infrastructure. Today, through Sabi Tech Advisory LLC, Dr. Sabi serves as a strategic bridge between semiconductor equipment manufacturers and the hyperscale end-users of AI and cloud compute. He holds numerous patents in semiconductor processing and remains a sought-after advisor on global supply chain resilience and advanced node scaling.

Stephen Pawlowski

Steve Pawlowski is a Senior Director at CoorsTek, where he leads strategic partnerships and key customer relationships within the global semiconductor industry. In this role, he works closely with OEMs, fabs, and technology leaders to align advanced materials solutions with the evolving demands of precision manufacturing, equipment performance, and long-term reliability. Pawlowski has also served as Director of Strategic Marketing at CoorsTek, where he helped shape market-driven strategies and supported the introduction of high-performance ceramic solutions across multiple semiconductor applications. His combined experience in sales, marketing, and systems-level thinking gives him a practical, customer-focused perspective on how structural ceramics enable higher accuracy, stability, and productivity in precision machine design. Pawlowski holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, an MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Florida, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Detroit Mercy. At TechCet’s Critical Materials Council Conference, he will draw on this multidisciplinary background to discuss the role of structural ceramics in advancing precision machine design for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.