Irwin Federman

Background

Federman was born in 1936 and graduated with a Bachelor of Surgery in Economics from Brooklyn College.

Education

Brooklyn College.

Career

He then went on to serve as Chief Financial Officer of three startup companies the last of which was the troubled semiconductor manufacturer Monolithic Memories (Multi Media Interface). Irwin was appointed Multi Media Interface"s President, the first non-engineer Chief Executive Officer in the semiconductor industry, and he presided over its successful turn around. Instead of laying workers off, he required that all workers to take one unpaid day off every other week, effectively cutting the payroll by 10% but preserving everyone"s job: the policy actually boosted morale as workers bonded over the shared sacrifice.

Managers came into work on their off days.

And everyone was more careful with their expenses. In 1980, Multi Media Interface went public.

In 1987, in a $442 million stock swap, Multi Media Interface was merged with Advanced Micro Devices to become the world"s largest integrated circuit manufacturer. Federman was appointed Vice Chairman of AMD. In 1988, he served as Managing Director of investment banking firm Dillon, Read & Company

In 1990, he joined early-stage venture capital firm, United States. Venture Partners, where he served as General Partner.

He previously served on the Boards of Directors of SanDisk, Checkpoint Software Technologies and Mellanox, Incorporated.

Achievements

• Federman served two terms as Chairman of the United States. Semiconductor Industry Association. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association, and served two terms on the Dean"s Advisory Board of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara Federman received Torch of Liberty Award from the Anti-Defamation League and the Brotherhood Award from the Silicon Valley Conference for Community and Justice. In 2004, Federman was inducted into Junior Achievement"s Silicon Valley Hall of Fame. In 2008, he received the International Business Forum"s Special Achievement Award. He serves as a trustee of San Francisco Ballet, Brooklyn College, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Artist He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering Science from Santa Clara University and the Exemplary Community Leadership Award from the Silicon Valley Conference of Christians and Jews (now FACES).