Kionix, one of the world's top three suppliers of MEMS accelerometers, announced this week that Michael Maia has been named Vice President Americas Sales and Marketing. Maia will be located in the company's Silicon Valley office and will report to Kenneth Salky, Kionix Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing. Maia has more than 25 years of experience in the electronics industry, most recently as a Vice President at InvenSense, a MEMS gyro maker. Maia will lead the sales, marketing and business development activities for North and South America while building the Silicon Valley office as a west coast hub for the company.
"Michael has the strategic vision, leadership skills, and personal qualities that will advance Kionix's leading position in the fast-growing MEMS inertial sensor market," said Greg Galvin, President and CEO, Kionix. "His extensive background in the sales and marketing of exciting, innovative products for both the consumer and OEM markets will help the company continue this leadership growth."
Maia brings a strong entrepreneurial background to this new position. He was a co-founder of PortalPlayer, where he helped commercialize media player technology that resulted in design wins with consumer electronics companies such as Apple, Philips, and Samsung and, ultimately, an IPO with over $225 million in the company's revenue. Prior to that, he held various senior sales and marketing positions at National Semiconductor, Cirrus Logic, and Trident Microsystems where he participated in Trident's initial public offering.
"I'm excited to join a team that has the depth, the resources and the experience to truly be at the forefront of the consumer MEMS industry," said Maia. "Kionix has one of the industry's strongest accelerometer product portfolios that is now expanding to include gyroscopes and, in the near future, combinations of highly integrated six-axis motion sensors."
Maia's initial focus will be to expand the company's sales and technical support presence in Silicon Valley, develop stronger ties with key software and semiconductor partners, and drive Kionix's roadmap to support the company’s tier-one handset, tablet, gaming, PC, and health and fitness customers.
Kionix, located in Ithaca, New York, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ROHM, based in Japan. The company has commercialized high-aspect ratio silicon micromachining based on research originally conducted at Cornell University.
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