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Dr. Casady brings nearly 20 years of hands-on semiconductor fab and device design experience in a combination of industry & academic settings such as Northrop Grumman, SemiSouth, University of Missouri, Auburn University, & Mississippi State University. He began his involvement with SiC power device development in 1994. Along with colleague Dr. Michael S. Mazzola, Dr. Casady co-founded SemiSouth in July, 2000, as a spin-out of Mississippi State University. Dr. Casady led the Company as President & CEO from 2002-2007. During this period SemiSouth increased its revenue nearly ten-fold, constructed its uniquely designed SiC fab, established global sales of epitaxy and early stage power transistor products, and attracted over $17 M of private equity & debt investment. SemiSouth was also able to win 17 highly competitive small business contracts from the Departments of Defense, Energy, and NASA during that period, including an extremely competitive contract for the hybrid electric vehicle development from the Department of Commerce, the first such award ever won by a Company in Mississippi.In 2007, he transitioned to Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Business Development, as well as continuing to serve as a Board member. In this role, Dr. Casady is actively engaged with several top tier power semiconductor manufacturers or users who are customers, prospective customers, or qualification partners, as well as managing the intellectual property portfolio for SemiSouth, which is currently 12 issued U.S. patents awarded or licensed, and seven additional patents pending. Dr. Casady has published over 70 technical publications, three book chapters, and been an inventor or co-inventor on seven patents, all in SiC device development. From 1999-2003, he served as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Mississippi State University while helping to found SemiSouth. Dr. Casady previously worked for Northrop Grumman Science and Technology Center on several key projects from 1996-99, including the development of high-frequency S-band and L-band SiC SITs for pulsed, narrow-band, high-power radar applications (both ground-based and airborn). He worked on the design and fabrication team for many of the first SiC power switch transistors, including thyristor/MOSFET based switches in the 1990's, and received marketing and project management training while there.He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University, and graduate and undergraduate Electrical Engineering degrees from the University of Missouri. | 