Silicon Labs Management

Matt Johnson serves as President and CEO of Silicon Labs, a leader in secure, intelligent wireless technology for a more connected world. Prior to becoming CEO, Matt led the company’s Internet of Things (IoT) business unit through a period of accelerating growth and industry leadership.  Silicon Labs is now solely focused on technology solutions to enable smart, connected devices, which are transforming industries, growing economies, and improving lives and our environment.  Before joining Silicon Labs, Matt held leadership positions at NXP, Freescale, and Fairchild Semiconductor.  Matt is dedicated to a strong company culture, innovative product development and operational excellence.  He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering Technology from the University of Maine and has completed executive programs at Harvard Business School and Stanford University.  Matt currently serves on the boards of Dell Children’s Medical Center Foundation, the Global Semiconductor Alliance, and the Semiconductor Industry Association.

John Hollister serves as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Silicon Labs, helping to lead the company’s growth in the broad-based semiconductor and Internet of Things (IoT) markets. John joined Silicon Labs in 2004 and held a variety of key financial management positions until 2007 when he became Managing Director of Silicon Labs’ Asia Operations, based in Singapore, where he was responsible for global supply chain management during a period of rapid growth overseas. In 2009, he advanced to Vice President, Manufacturing and Asia Operations. In 2012 he returned to Austin as Vice President of Business Development, where he was instrumental in executing the company's IoT acquisition strategy, and was subsequently named CFO in 2013. Prior to joining Silicon Labs, John served as Vice President of Finance at Cicada Semiconductor and held various finance positions at Cirrus Logic, Veritas DGC, 3-D Geophysical and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.  John is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Master’s degree in professional accounting and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin.  John currently serves as a Board Director for MacroFab, and from 2013 to 2021 he served on the Board of the Central Texas Chapter of the American Red Cross and remains a Community Volunteer Advisor.

Daniel Cooley serves as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Technology and Product Development, where he is responsible for the company’s overall research and development strategy and execution. Cooley is a respected IoT industry visionary and has been instrumental in building the unmatched breadth and depth of the company’s wireless connectivity portfolio. Previously, Daniel served as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, where he led Silicon Labs’ overall strategy, corporate development, M&A, emerging markets, and security. Prior to that, Daniel led Silicon Labs’ IoT business as Senior Vice President and General Manager. Since 2005, Cooley has served in a variety of engineering and business leadership positions at Silicon Labs in the US, Asia and Europe. He has an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and holds four patents in radio and low-power technology. Daniel currently serves on the board of directors for the Thinkery, Texas 4000, and the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

Serena Townsend serves as Chief People Officer at Silicon Labs, where she is responsible for the company’s global talent strategy, people programs, and values-driven, inclusive culture. Serena joined Silicon Labs in February 2017 to lead our global HR Business Partner team and was promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer in September 2020. She has more than 25 years of experience in high growth technology organizations with a focus on high-performance global teams, alignment to business goals, and a people-first philosophy. Before joining Silicon Labs, Serena held HR leadership positions at companies including Samsung Austin Semiconductor and HomeAway (Expedia). She holds a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Texas (UT), is a UT distinguished college scholar, and volunteers for organizations including Crossing Thresholds and Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas.

Brandon Tolany serves as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Marketing, and Applications where he leads the company’s go-to-market engine. In this role, he is responsible for all global sales and marketing activities delivering customer success by accelerating engagement, ease-of-use and growth for customers of all sizes. In collaboration with all company functions, Brandon leads a team hyper-focused on driving adoption of Silicon Labs’ industry-leading IoT platform. Prior to joining Silicon Labs, Brandon served as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Freescale Semiconductor. During his 12-year tenure at Freescale, Brandon progressed in a range of leadership positions in marketing, product management and sales. Brandon holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. Brandon also serves as a board member for The Rosedale Foundation whose mission is to empower special needs students and their families.

Dr. Sandeep Kumar serves as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations, where he is responsible for driving the company’s gross margin, as well as technology and supplier strategy. His operations team includes the manufacturing teams, supply chain, process and package engineering, product and test engineering, quality assurance, failure analysis, prototype production and reliability test labs. Prior to joining Silicon Labs in 2006, Sandeep managed global test engineering teams and was responsible for worldwide product and test engineering for the storage business at Agere Systems, Lucent technologies and AT&T Bell Labs. Sandeep has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India, a M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Evansville in Indiana, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University. Sandeep has served on the board of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas and currently serves on their development committee. He serves on the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department’s Industry Advisory Council for Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.

Ross Sabolcik serves as Senior Vice President of the Industrial and Commercial IoT business unit at Silicon Labs.  In this role, Ross leads the delivery of connected, wireless solutions for industrial and commercial sectors including metering, industrial and building automation, commercial lighting, and connected retail applications.  Previously he served as the General Manager for Silicon Labs’ power products including digital isolators, isolated gate drivers, isolated FET drivers, current sensors, and PoE products revenue.  Ross joined Silicon Labs in 1999 and has served in a variety of roles including Marketing Director for the company’s sub-GHz wireless products, Director of Applications and Systems Engineering for broadcast products, and as Director of Applications Engineering for wireline products.  Prior to Silicon Labs, Ross worked at National Instruments, managing product development for embedded software, as well as board-level hardware design for precision PC instrumentation. He holds a Master’s degree in computer and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BSEE from Penn State University, and currently serves as the Chairperson on the board of directors for the Austin Habitat for Humanity.

Benny Chang serves as Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President of Platform and Products for Silicon Labs. In this role, he is responsible for the overall platform strategy and product roadmaps. Benny has more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, where he’s led product development, product and test engineering, manufacturing, and operations. Prior to joining Silicon Labs, Benny served as Vice President of R&D at NXP Semiconductors, Vice President of Product Development and Operations for Automotive MCU at Freescale Semiconductor, and Senior Vice President of Global Wafer Manufacturing at Fairchild Semiconductor. Prior to Freescale, he held various leadership roles at Tundra Semiconductor and Quadic Systems. Benny holds a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in Solid State Electronics.

Jake Alamat serves as Senior Vice President of Home and Life Business at Silicon Labs. In this role, Jake is responsible for the delivery of intelligent, wireless solutions central to IoT products widely used in daily life including smart lights, voice assistants, portable medical devices, HVAC controls, smart appliances, and more. With more than 20 years of industry experience at NXP and Texas Instruments, Jake has served in multiple leadership roles focused on embedded processing and analog semiconductor solutions. His career experience spans consumer, mobile, automotive, industrial and infrastructure end markets. Prior to joining Silicon Labs in September 2019, Jake served as Vice President and General Manager of Automotive Connectivity at NXP Semiconductors. Jake holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in computer engineering from Michigan State University.

Dr. Manish Kothari serves as Senior Vice President of Software Development for Silicon Labs.  In this role, he is responsible for growing the company’s wireless engineering talent, building scalable infrastructure, and fostering local partnerships in Hyderabad, Silicon Labs’ newest and fastest-growing wireless development center.  He has more than 20 years of technology management experience, and prior to Silicon Labs served in various leadership roles at Qualcomm Hyderabad including head of wireless software product development. Manish holds more than 100 patents, graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and received his MS and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mark Mauldin serves as Chief Accounting Officer for Silicon Labs, leading the company’s global accounting, financial reporting, and compliance functions.  Mark joined Silicon Labs in 2004 and has served in various financial management roles including Vice President of Finance, Corporate Controller, Director of FP&A, and Director of Internal Audit.  Prior to joining Silicon Labs, Mark served as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Controller for Perficient, Inc. and started his career at Ernst & Young.  Mark is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a master’s degree in professional accounting and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin.

Néstor Ho serves as Chief Legal Officer for Silicon Labs, where he is responsible for the company’s worldwide legal and corporate services, including corporate stewardship, ethics, commercial agreements, intellectual property, labor, purchasing, facilities, trade compliance and security. Nestor joined Silicon Labs in 2003 and also serves as Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer, director for 20+ worldwide subsidiaries and Secretary of the company. Prior to Silicon Labs, Néstor held various corporate counsel roles at 3M including Assistant Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property and Managing IP Counsel for Latin America and Africa. He holds an MBA from St. Edwards University, an LLM from UT Law School, a JD from Indiana University School of Law and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Néstor is currently the Chair of the Education Committee for the Austin Chamber of Commerce and member of the Ascension Seton finance board.

Karuna Annavajjala serves as Chief Information Officer for Silicon Labs, where she oversees IT services for the company’s global business operations including strategic planning, infrastructure services, business application platforms, cyber security and data privacy, and IT service delivery. Prior to joining Silicon Labs, Karuna served as CIO of Corporate Functions at AIG where she developed and implemented strategies for IT applications, platforms and processes supporting AIG’s global operations including digital marketing, legal and compliance, human resources and business services. Previously, she was the executive director of technology delivery at TIAA where she developed IT transformation strategies, managed multiple global technology and professional services teams, and established offshore capabilities. Karuna holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in computer science from West Virginia University, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Osmania University. In addition, she completed an executive leadership certificate at Cornell University, S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. Karuna is passionate about STEM education for girls, is an advocate for women in technology, and is actively involved in various local and international nonprofit causes including Thinkery where she currently serves on the board of directors.

Sharon Hagi serves as Chief Security Officer of Silicon Labs, where he leads the company’s comprehensive risk-based cybersecurity strategies and programs. Sharon has over 23 years of security experience in multiple technology disciplines. Prior to Silicon Labs, Sharon served as Vice President of Security at Ethoca, a Mastercard company, and Chief Technology Strategist at IBM Security. Sharon is a recognized subject matter expert and respected thought leader in IoT security where he has been promoting the vision and benefits of integrating silicon-rooted trust models and secure manufacturing operations. He holds patents in information security and applied machine learning and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Sharon received his Honors BSc degrees in Computer Science and Physics from the University of Toronto, and he currently volunteers as a subject matter expert with the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)².