Board of Directors

Ashraf Lotfi, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Ashraf is a world renowned leader and expert in power electronics, power management and power technologies. Having been continuously involved in leading teams in research, design and commercial development in the power field for over 25 years, he brings many leadership, managerial and technical qualities to his role.

Prior to founding Enpirion, he led the power management R&D effort at Bell Laboratories as Director of Power Management Research (Lucent/Agere). He formulated a vision for a research effort with the ambitious goal of creating the technology pieces needed to create, for the first time, true power management on a single chip. These efforts combined multiple technology disciplines such as power semiconductor design, RF circuit design, high-speed power topologies, magnetic design and package technology in a highly coordinated development to achieve a commercially viable yet breakthrough technology which enables high performance in a single chip in an economical manner.

He has also served as Department Head, Power Systems Research at Lucent/Agere. In a previous position, his development efforts in power systems applications included high-density dc/dc power modules, planar high density magnetics, custom dc/dc converters, high power rectifiers and battery plants for telecommunications energy supplies. These technologies formed the cornerstone for many product lines that allowed Lucent's (previously AT&T's) Power Systems Division to deliver highly differentiated products in the market place, which resulted in commanding leadership market share and revenues. He also held various engineering and instructor positions at Virginia Tech and Cairo University.

Dr. Lotfi has authored a very large number of publications and white papers that have appeared in leading journals and at specialized meetings in the field of power. He is inventor on over 100 issued and pending U.S. patents, all of which are directly related to power technologies and products. He received a BS degree with honors from Cairo University in 1984, a PhD degree from Virginia Tech in 1993 and an executive MBA from Northeastern University in 2001.

Eric Young

Canaan Partners, Director

Eric is a General Partner at Canaan Partners.

Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric has helped launch a multitude of market-leading companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. He was an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), whose technology led the 1990’s DSL wave in North America; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena’s current offerings (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana, which introduced the concept of a multi-port Ethernet switch (acquired by Cisco Systems). Eric also generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Eric leads Canaan’s investments in cleantech and also pursues key opportunities in network infrastructure. Passionate about changing the balance in the energy industry to support a more sustainable future, Eric has been investing in cleantech since the early 1990s, when he backed early disruptors Transphase Systems, maker of large-scale energy storage systems; and Capstone Turbine, now the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and the first to market with commercially viable microturbine energy products. As an active Board member for 13 years, Eric helped transform Capstone Turbine from an engineering project into publicly-held leader in the distributed power generation industry. Elsewhere, Eric has contributed as an active director at Enpirion, whose technology represents the first major innovation in integrated power technology in over a decade.

Prior to Canaan, Eric was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Eric also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses.

Eric currently sits on the boards of Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of intelligent communication solutions; Ebates, the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping; Enpirion, maker of the industry’s smallest power management system on a chip; EnStorage, developer of a low-cost Regenerative Fuel Cell energy-storage-system for multiple energy applications; Lancope, the global market leader in Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) and Response technology; and Xirrus, the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi.

Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University. Eric recently served for five years as Silicon Valley’s VC-industry representative on Nasdaq’s Listing and Hearing Review Council, He is also member of Advisory Council of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship initiative, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, as well as a frequent speaker to university students at Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkeley on the transformative power of entrepreneurship. An engineer at heart, Eric is happiest when figuring out “how things work” – but he also dabbles in fly fishing, golf and the outdoors in general.

Rob Herb

Scale Venture Partners, Director

Rob Herb is a Venture Partner at Scale Venture Partners.

Rob Herb invests in markets in which he has always had a passion. At SVP, Rob is part of the firm's information technology team that identifies hardware investments including semiconductors and components, primarily for consumer electronics and enterprise systems. He serves on the Board of Directors of Astute Networks, Enpirion, Ncomputing, Inc., Siimpel Corporation and MIPS Technologies.

Rob joined SVP in 2005 following more than 20 years with AMD in a number of sales, marketing and general management positions. For the last four years of his tenure with AMD, Rob was Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, working in the Office of the CEO. In that capacity he led the worldwide sales and marketing team and directed AMD's go-to-market strategy across all product lines.

Rob has a BSEE degree from the University of Illinois.

Timothy L. Krongard

QuestMark Partners, Director

Tim Krongard is a General Partner at QuestMark Partners.

Tim joined QuestMark in 1998 as the Chief Financial Officer. Through the end of 2005, he managed all internal financial matters and assisted with transaction sourcing, due diligence investigations and financial analysis. Beginning in 2006, Tim relinquished the CFO role to focus on investment opportunities and his board positions. After receiving his MBA from the University of Virginia's Darden School in 1990, he spent from 1990 to 1998 working in various management capacities with a variety of entrepreneurial ventures. Tim is a graduate of Princeton University. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Calvert School in Baltimore.

Tim currently serves as a board member of Engineous Software, Senior Health and RealLife HR.

Richard McGinn

RRE Ventures, Director

Rich is a General Partner at RRE Ventures.

Rich brings a 30-year career in the global communication systems, networking and technology industries to the firm. He is a member of the Business Council, and Director of the American Express Company and the Mountain Top Foundation. He is the former Chairman and Chief Executive of Lucent Technologies. While at Lucent, Mr. McGinn oversaw and directed engineering, research and investments of more than $4 billion annually at Bell Labs, Lucent's research and development arm.

At Lucent, Rich was involved in the acquisition of, or investment in, over 30 technology companies. He conceived of and led the investment by AT&T in Sun Microsystems in 1987 and continued to build and acquire technology companies, including the acquisition of Ascend Communications. In addition, he devised and guided the creation of Agere Systems, a leading supplier of semiconductors and optoelectronic components for the communications industry, which went public in 2001.

Previously, while President and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T's Network Systems Group and President of AT&T Computer Systems, he was responsible for the strategy to accelerate growth and globalization of AT&T Network Systems, as well as responsible for R&D and systems engineering. He also served as president of AT&T's Data Systems Group with responsibility for strategy and business development.

Mr. McGinn holds a BA from Grinnell College.

Phil Herget

Columbia Capital, Director

Phil Herget is a partner at Columbia Capital.

Phil joined Columbia Capital in 1992. In addition to serving on Enpirion’s Board of Directors, he currently serves on the Boards of Avail Media, Hatteras Networks, Hillcrest Laboratories, and Imagine Communications. Former Columbia Capital portfolio companies that Phil managed include Altiga Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems), Call Technologies (acquired by 3Com), Columbia Spectrum Management (acquired by P-Com), NMP (acquired by AppNet / Commerce One), Ocular Networks (acquired by Tellabs), Riverbed Technologies (acquired by Aether Systems), Saville Systems (NASDAQ: SAVLY subsequently acquired by ADC Communications), Taqua (acquired by Tekelec), Telular (NASDAQ: WRLS), and Torrent Networking Technologies (acquired by Ericsson). In 1993, Phil joined Telular Corporation as its Chief Financial Officer, where he led the company through an initial public offering, returning to Columbia in 1994. Prior to joining Columbia Capital, he served in various financial management positions for Energy Service Company, Energy Insurance International, Marsh & McLennan, and Lloyd's of London broker C.T. Bowring & Co. in London, England.

Phil received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and his MBA from Kenan-Flager Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary, the College Foundation Board of the University of Virginia, the Board of Governors of Saint Stephens/St. Agnes School, and the Board of Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association.

Franklin Weigold

Independent Director

Frank, a noted semiconductor industry expert, served as the Vice President and General Manager for the Micromachined Products Division at Analog Devices until his retirement. Previously, he held the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Transportation and Industrial Products Division. Before his work at Analog Devices, Mr. Weigold was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Unitrode, a New York Stock Exchange company. He also served as the President of Silicon General, and spent more than a decade in various leadership positions at TRW. Mr. Weigold has been a pioneer in semiconductor technology dating back to his first job out of college at Westinghouse, where he worked as a development engineer on silicon rectifiers, transistors and SCR's and published several technical papers describing inventions of those products.