Quantenna Communications Names David French as New CEO
Founder Behrooz Rezvani Continues with Company as President and Chairman
FREMONT, Calif., May 12, 2009 - Quantenna Communications, Inc., a leading developer of silicon for high-speed, wireless high definition (HD) video home networking, announced today that its Board of Directors has named David French, a 30-year semiconductor industry veteran, as the company’s chief executive officer and appointed him to Board of Directors, effective immediately.
French will succeed Dr. Behrooz Rezvani, Quantenna’s current founder, president, CEO, and chairman of the board. Dr. Rezvani will continue his role as president of Quantenna and chairman of the Board of Directors.
“ Dave is the ideal CEO for Quantenna at this time in the company’s development. He brings established semiconductor leadership to an already strong, engineering-driven company,” said Dr. Rezvani. “Dave has unique experience in successfully managing high-performance, integrated chip solutions for consumer entertainment applications and has an excellent understanding of how to profitably scale the business and grow our market share. With Dave’s proven dynamic leadership and our recently announced Series C funding, we have the potential to build a truly successful global wireless company.”
French brings more than three decades of semiconductor experience to Quantenna. Most recently, he was president and CEO of Cirrus Logic Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor public company. Under French's leadership, Cirrus Logic emerged as a world leader in audio integrated circuits, such as audio converters and audio digital signal processors, as well as industrial mixed-signal and embedded ICs. He joined Cirrus Logic as president and COO in June 1998 and was named CEO in February 1999.
Prior to Cirrus Logic, French was the vice president and general manager at Analog Devices Inc., where he was instrumental in driving the company's growth in markets served by advanced DSP and mixed-signal processing solutions. Before joining Analog Devices, he held management positions at Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments, where he played a key role in driving the sales and market share growth of products based on the TMS320 architecture. French earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from the University of Rochester.
Quantenna is focused on solving today’s home networking challenges. These challenges include delivering ultra-reliable, high-speed wireless coverage throughout the whole home to support sharing of HD video and multimedia content between home gateways and TVs anyplace, anywhere. Quantenna’s technology is targeted at devices such as home residential gateways, set-top boxes, routers, HDTVs and consumer electronic devices, which all require high bandwidth and reliability to support whole home HD video distribution and networking over standard Wi-Fi networks.
“The chance to join Quantenna at this stage in its development, with a new round of funding secured, is a great opportunity,” said French. “I’ve worked closely with and evaluated many start-ups throughout my career, and Quantenna is at the top of the class with an inspired and driven team of people, world-class technology and superb customer interest in a growing market. Quantenna has built solid awareness in the Wi-Fi HD video home networking market and I am looking forward to leading the company to the next level as it addresses significant potential opportunities.“
About Quantenna Communications, Inc.
Quantenna Communications, Inc. is a fabless semiconductor company developing next-generation chipsets that deliver the highest levels of performance, speed and reliability for wireless networks and devices. Headquartered in Fremont, Calif., Quantenna has assembled a management and engineering team with a long track record of start-up success, and is backed by leading venture capital firms, including Grazia Equity, Sequoia Capital, Sigma Partners, Southern Cross Venture Partners and Venrock Associates. For additional information, please visit www.quantenna.com.