Technology >> CEO Interviews >> March 18, 2002
WILLIAM W.R. ELDER founded Genus, Inc., a semiconductor equipment
company in Silicon Valley, in January 1982 and is the Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer. From October 1996 to April 1998, he
served only as Chairman of the Board. From April 1990 to
September 1996, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
the company. From November 1981 to April 1990, he was President,
CEO and a Director of the company. He attended Paisley Technical
college, and earned a Bachelor's degree in Industrial
Engineering. During this period he was employed at the Rootes
(later Chrysler) car factory as a work study engineer. In 1968
Dr. Elder emigrated to the United States and worked as a
management consultant to California Blue Shield, as they assumed
management responsibility for the state of California's health
insurance programs, Medicare and Medi-Cal. Dr. Elder managed the
group responsible for developing the manual operating systems to
interface with the computer operation, which had been
subcontracted to Electronic Data Systems. In January 1970, Dr.
Elder joined Fairchild Semiconductor as a manufacturing engineer.
During the next 10 years, he was promoted several times to
various senior management positions, culminating in a transfer to
set up and manage Fairchild's Consumer Products facility in Hong
Kong in 1977. In 1979 Dr. Elder resigned from Fairchild to join
Kasper Instrument, a division of Eaton Corp, as Vice President,
Operations. Dr. Elder was promoted to Division President within
one year. Dr. Elder received an honorary Doctor's degree from the
University of Paisley in 1995, and has spoken several times at
the University on the entrepreneurial environment in Silicon
Valley. In 1996, he established a scholarship at the University
of Paisley to assist students who have the entrepreneurial spirit
in funding their initial business plans. Currently, Dr. Elder
holds a Board of Director position at Aehr Test Systems, a
Mountain View, California-based semiconductor equipment company,
and is a founding member of the Globalscot Network, recently
formed through the Scottish Enterprise office. In January 1998,
Dr. Elder was appointed Britain's first-ever Honorary Consul for
the Silicon Valley. In this role, his objective is to work with
Silicon Valley's high-tech community to both broaden and increase
the business relationships with their counterparts in Britain. Profile
overview of the company?
Dr. Elder: Genus is a semiconductor equipment company that's
focused in the thin film deposition segment of
