QUEST TEAM - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Marketing and Customer Solutions for MicroProbe
Ms. Leong is Sr. Vice President, Marketing and Customer Solutions for MicroProbe. She brings extensive experience in semiconductor marketing and in-depth knowledge in semiconductor and storage industries from front-end wafer fabrication and metrology to back-end test and packaging.
Job Titles:
- Principal of Action Pro Tem
Charles, a member of The Quest Team and Principal of Action Pro Tem, is an international business consultant serving both the semiconductor and PCB equipment and materials industries. For over nearly 20 years he has been presenting workshops and seminars on high-tech marketing and sales. Further, he assists technology businesses establish successful distribution arrangements and resolve other marketing, sales and management related problems, domestically and internationally.
With more than 30 years experience in high technology, Charles has been Vice President of Sales and Service and Vice President of Product Marketing for Applied Materials, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Tylan Corporation and General Manager of Gyrex Corporation. Most recently he was Vice President of Sales for High Yield Technology.
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer in Marketing / the Southampton Business School / United Kingdom
- Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the Southampton Business School, United Kingdom
- Team Members Emeritus
Dr. Kevin Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at The Southampton Business School, United Kingdom where he teaches marketing and researches in the field of strategic account management. He is also a director of the Sales Research Trust Ltd., and co-editor of the Journal of Selling and Major Account Management.
In a former life Kevin worked with UK, European and American companies including GEC, Seimens and Harvey Hubbell in the lighting industry, where he performed a variety of sales management roles.
Following a sabbatical, during which he gained his MBA at the University of Nottingham, Kevin went on to complete his PhD at the same university. He is widely published in the field of key and strategic account management and works closely with SAMA in the United States and in Europe. He is also a regular speaker at international conferences.
Kevin provides bespoke workshops and management development seminars for senior executives within companies striving to serve their customers better, be that at a national, international or global level. The workshops and seminars use the very latest research to underpin the strategic thinking of managers facing a constantly changing environment.
Many years ago...in 1994, as a first-time marketer in the semiconductor equipment industry, Tim Pratt attended the SEMI Fundamentals of Product Marketing class. In the years since, he has helped shape the direction of multiple products, groups, and companies across many end market industries.
With over four decades in the electronics industry, Mitch Little has led global engineering, marketing and sales teams both small and large, startup and mature. He has been a part of Microchip Technology since 1989 and now leads the worldwide sales and applications team of the $10+ Billion market cap company, the only non-commissioned sales team in the industry. In the fall of 2015 Microchip will post its 100th consecutive quarter of profitability, a record unmatched by any other company in the industry.
We are sad to report that John passed away June 29, 2020. John was a long-time contributor to both our company and broadly to the semiconductor equipment and materials industry. He positively impacted many lives and will be long remembered.
With sadness we report that Quest Team member Joe Verderber died on April 3, 2018 from heart failure. Joe was an excellent teacher, mentor and coach, and a valued friend and colleague. All who knew Joe were the better for it. He will be greatly missed.
Mr. Verderber is a senior Quest Team training coach and a retired industry executive. His training focus is on providing financial knowledge for professionals in numerous industries, along with pricing and modeling development knowledge for management.
He has been a Quest Team instructor in open enrollment and On-Demand programs since 1994, while still working in industry. He is highly experienced in financial concepts, team building, organizational development, and employee motivation.
As a young engineer out of MIT he was mentored by an executive who taught him about business and financial disciplines. He advanced in his career to company president and attributes a great deal of his career success to this mentoring. Joe has been motivated to "give back" by training others and his retirement has allowed him to fully focus his energies in this area.
Joe gained experience in the high-tech equipment businesses in R&D, engineering, product management, marketing, sales and general management, He was hired as President of Teradyne Laser Systems, Inc. and then as VP and General Manager of General Scanning Inc.'s (now GSI Group) Laser Systems Division. He has significant experience doing business in Asia and Europe. He also served on the Board of General Scanning Japan K.K., retiring as its Chairman, and was a Geschaftsfuhrer of General Scanning GmbH in Germany.
Joe holds Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a National Merit and National Science Foundation Scholar. He also completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Business.
Mr. Dunn is a Senior Quest Team Coach. He recently retired from Festo Corporation where he was Vice President & Global Advisor. He came to this position from a second term at MKS Instruments as Vice President of Marketing. Earlier he was an investor in and operated part-time as chief marketing officer for Plasmachem, while actively consulting to a number of equipment suppliers in the area of horizontal partnering and strategic technical alliances.
Ken Gavin is a consultant with The Quest Team and principal of Ken Gavin Consulting, based in Ireland. He recently left Intel after 17 years in senior procurement and program management positions in both Ireland and the United States.
Ken's contributions at Intel included:
Management of the Chemical & Gases procurement group based in Santa Clara, California, with an annual budget of $500 million.
200mm Wafer Fab Cost Strategy Program Manager with an annual budget of $400m.
Developed, owned and presented Intel's multi-billion dollar Strategic Sourcing Plan for equipment that sets out the corporation's procurement strategy for the next 5 years. Over 200 Intel procurement professionals are currently executing this plan.
Contributed to various strategic sourcing plans in both the indirect and direct materials areas, including outsourcing strategy.
Led various teams including a High Risk Strategic Supply Chain group to June 2009. Led the Global Fab Materials Division's task force team on Supplier Financial Health Risk.
As recently as June 2009 Ken was Intel's senior commercial point of contact on REACH, the European Union legislation on chemicals for all suppliers and for the various EU regulatory authorities both in Ireland and Europe.
During his tenure at Intel, Ken worked extensively with Intel senior management across many divisions representing the Global Fab Materials procurement group. Hea is a recipient of Intel's highest honour for an employee, the Intel Achievement Award.
Prior to joining Intel, Ken was procurement manager for Philips Ireland Ltd., Clondalkin Group, Rorer Ireland Ltd.
Len Given is President and Founder of The Quest Team, Inc. With four decades of experience in high-tech industries, he has been developing sales, marketing, support and management teams from the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.
He has personally been involved with in-depth training and consulting work in more than 350 companies. He is internationally recognized as an accomplished workshop leader and consultant in interpersonal sales psychology, strategic account management, technical product marketing and team building.
While he has worked with clients across 23 industries, Mr. Given has extensive knowledge of the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment and materials industry. Having worked with managerial, sales, marketing, and other professional teams in scores of semiconductor equipment, materials and components manufacturers and a significant portion of the IDMs since 1979. He knows the industry well.
He served as the project manager for the development of the national, award winning course, Fundamentals of Product Marketing (for the SEM industry), as well as Principles of Selling to the Semiconductor Industry, Key Semiconductor Account Selling and Management, Combating Aggressive Supply Chain Management, Doing Business with Intel, Financial Boot Camp for the Non-Financial professional/Manager and Account Support Boot Camp, all of which have been presented as a joint venture with SEMI. In all courses he was extensively involved in both the design and the compilation of relevant material.
Prior to founding The Quest Team, Mr. Given had a senior management background in the development of business systems, design of software applications and, data processing. A former US Air Force officer, he holds a degree in marketing from Syracuse University.
Len Given's profile on LinkedIn.com is well received. LinkedIn reports that traffic to Len's profile ranks it in the top 5% of the more than 200 million profiles on their system.
Marty is a member emeritus of The Quest Team and principal of TMX International. Marty's primary focus today is helping companies bring products to market.
Job Titles:
- Member of the CEB Sales Advisory Board
Mitch is a member of the CEB Sales Advisory Board, a select group of Chief Sales Officers representing leading companies including Kaiser Permanente, Disney, and Fidelity Investments. He is also a Certified Master Coach with the Behavioral Coaching Institute, a member of the Executive Advisory Board for Model N, and a past Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Upward Foundation.
Prior to joining Olympus in 1999, Mr. LaFrance was the Vice President of Marketing, Customer Support and Sales for Aplex (a CMP startup company which he joined in 1998). Between 1993 and 1998 he was the Vice President of Marketing and Process Engineering for Silicon Valley Group, Track Systems Division in San Jose, California. He has over twenty years of experience in the semiconductor equipment and photomask industries including a position as the Director of Marketing for Nikon Precision, the U. S. subsidiary of Nikon Corporation. Mr. LaFrance has worked as an acquisitions manager for a multi-billion dollar European corporation, lived and worked in Europe where he also started a photomask company. His early career included production management at National Semiconductor and a number of years of selling and marketing in the photomask industry.
Job Titles:
- Principal and Founder of JSO Trans Pacific
Mr. Ohmine is the principal and founder of JSO Trans Pacific, a consulting firm which specializes in establishing business relationships between USA high-tech startup companies and Asian organizations. With over 25 years of industry experience, he is also a consultant and corporate advisor on Asian strategy, focusing on the semiconductor equipment and materials industry.