Tom Mitchell, Board’s Director, GigOptix

GigOptix, Inc., a fabless supplier of semiconductor and optical components that enable high speed information streaming, announced that David T. (Tom) Mitchell has been appointed to fill a vacancy on GigOptix’s Board of Directors as an independent Class I Director.

 Mitchell has over 33 years of experience in the electronics and semiconductor industries, while founding and co-founding two of the biggest manufacturing names in the industry. Currently, he is the chairman, CEO and founder of Fabrinet for which he established the company vision of striving through manufacturing excellence and customer focus to be the best manufacturing outsourcing solution for complex optical, industrial and automotive products. He was also a co-founder and president of Seagate Technology, and formerly Thailand’s largest foreign employer.

Mitchell is considered a pioneering force in the establishment of Asia as the pre-eminent manufacturing base for the hard disk drive industry. With his experience in manufacturing of complex high precision electronics, he leveraged his expertise into other vertical markets such as optical, automotive and industrial products. Today many of the world’s leading technology companies look to Fabrinet for the manufacture of their complex technology products. Mitchell has established high quality, high volume, and low cost manufacturing bases in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India and China.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Montana State University. He has also served as Captain in the U.S. Marine Corp.

"As we move from an early stage company to a globally mature, world-class quality manufacturing organization, I am delighted that Tom accepted our invitation to join our Board of Directors and welcome him on board," commented Dr. Avi Katz, chairman, CEO and president of GigOptix. "His wealth and depth of experience, pioneering the Asia Contract Manufacturing Industry, and building the leading CM of high-speed optical components in the world, will certainly add a new level of professional and technical expertise to our team, as we continue to rapidly grow as a production trusted partner with our large number of industry leading customers. With Tom’s appointment, we now have a board comprised of five independent directors whose diverse experiences will lead us to new and exciting horizons in GigOptix journey’s next chapter."

"This is the first time I have accepted such an offer to join a board of directors of a public company and I am looking forward to this new role as a director on the GigOptix Board. The future looks very promising for GigOptix based on their innovative products, aggressive execution and approach to business, primarily through partnering," stated Mitchell. "I look forward to offering my experiences and collaborating with my fellow directors and the leadership team to support the ambitious goals of the company."