Management Team
Chris Adams, President & Chief Executive Officer
Phil Holden, Vice President, Systems Engineering
Thomas Ayers, Vice President, Engineering
John Monti, Vice President Worldwide Sales and Marketing
Ping Wah Wong – Vice President, Algorithm Development
Jeff Jones, Director of Product Marketing
Chris Adams - President & Chief Executive Officer
Chris Adams has spent his career in the business of semiconductors for cable, satellite and terrestrial delivery of digital video and data. He joins Pixim from Tallwood Venture Capital, one of Pixim's investors, where he was an Executive-in-Residence. During his tenure at Tallwood, Chris was instrumental in driving the strategic plans for several portfolio companies.
Before Tallwood, Chris was vice president and general manager for the set-top box and cable modem business at LSI Logic. During that time, Chris played a key role in integrating C-Cube's set-top business into LSI. Prior to working at LSI, Chris spent five years at C-Cube Microsystems, as an executive in both marketing and engineering, building the set-top box business. Earlier, Chris was director of engineering at DiviCom and was involved in pioneering work on video servers and HDTV at HP.
Chris holds a bachelor's degree in the sciences from the University of British Columbia and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He was the chairman of the DSMCC subcommittee of MPEG and holds many patents in the digital video and signal processing field.
Phil Holden - Vice President, Systems Engineering
As vice president of systems engineering for Pixim, Phil Holden brings 25 years of design and implementation experience in the use of semiconductors and software for a variety of digital applications, with particular emphasis on digital video. Phil is also responsible for customer support and applications engineering at Pixim, creating a multi-disciplinary team focused on getting camera manufacturers to market quickly and effectively.
Prior to joining Pixim, Phil served as director of applications for C-Cube Microsystems, a leader in digital video technologies that was acquired by LSI Logic. Phil is a native of the UK and came to California to work for Stag Microsystems. He started MSD3 in 1992 to build test equipment for PCMCIA products and moved the company and his expertise to Vadem Inc. Phil worked as director of applications engineering at Chromatic Research, a media processor company, before joining C-Cube.
A member of IEEE, Phil is a published writer with articles in EE Times, product development and IEEE publications. He has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Sussex Universities in the UK.
Thomas Ayers - Vice President, Engineering
Thomas Ayers has over 15 years experience in engineering development for video solutions applied in cable modems, set-top box devices, and video compression head-end equipment.
Prior to Pixim, Thomas was vice president, engineering at Broadlogic where he lead the development of a wideband receiver used in the world's fastest cable modem (300Mbps) which defined key features in the DOCSIS30 cable modem standard. Also at BroadLogic, Thomas developed product concepts and lead technical interaction with cable MSOs and leading systems companies such as CISCO, SA, Bigband and others resulting in two rounds of funding by top tier MSOs: TWC and Comcast.
Thomas was vice president, hardware engineering for Believe, Inc., a solutions company providing next generation technology for advanced 3D graphics. Thomas built the engineering team from the ground up, including an offshore development facility.
Thomas has held various management and engineering positions within C-Cube Microsystems, Inc., now part of LSI Logic, Inc. While at C-Cube, he created a new business unit with budgetary, hiring, and engineering management responsibility for set-top cable modems and analog video products, launching the successful 21xx line of products. Thomas was also responsible for managing the initial development of the highly integrated ZiVA-5 DVD product, and running systems hardware and VLSI development teams spanning five generations of set-top silicon including the AViA line of products.
Prior to C-Cube Microsystems, Thomas was instrumental in the success of startup DiviCom, Inc., now part of Harmonic, Inc. While there, he participated in development of the world's first real time MPEG2 encoder products, as well as the world's first MPEG2 transport demultiplexer and DVB descrambler. Thomas was also responsible for developing three generations of set-top silicon products as well as two commercially deployed set-top boxes including manufacturing line startups for SAGEM and Zenith.
Thomas earned an MSEE and BSEE from the University of New York at Buffalo
John Monti - Vice President Worldwide Sales and Marketing
John Monti is Pixim's vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, and a co-founding executive of the Company. Drawing on experience in the fields of semiconductor applications, marketing and system-on-chip solutions, John brings to Pixim a unique blend of customer awareness and technological expertise. John is a published writer and speaker at such forums as the IP UserGroup USA, Security Systems News, A&S International Magazine, Security Products Magazine, Security Middle East, China Public Security International, EE Times, Video/Imaging Design Line, and the Interagency Biometrics Conference. He is the holder of two United States patents.
Prior to joining Pixim, he served as a vice president of marketing for ATI Technology Inc., the world’s second-largest computer graphics company. Working in the Integrated Products Division at ATI, John was responsible for integrated core logic chipsets and microprocessor products for multimedia applications.
Between 1995 and 1998, John worked for Sunnyvale, CA-based Chromatic Research, where he was hired as director of product marketing. In that role, he helped define Chromatic’s two highest volume media processor solutions. The company ultimately shipped more than 1.5 million units to such clients as Compaq, Gateway and Toshiba. John’s success at Chromatic culminated in promotion to vice president of marketing. At that level, John also helped facilitate the sale of Chromatic to ATI Inc. in 1998.
Before joining Chromatic, John was director of marketing for Symphony Laboratories, a small semiconductor company, which defined and marketed chipsets for PC motherboards. Customers included Apple, IBM, NexGen and Motorola.
In 1987, John began his career in the semiconductor industry at Advanced Micro Devices, where he held a series of management and marketing positions. His contributions helped secure large-scale contracts with Apple, Compaq, Sun, Digital, Hewlett-Packard and others.
John has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Yale University and a master’s degree in engineering management from Santa Clara University.
Ping Wah Wong – Vice President, Algorithm Development
Ping Wah Wong has over 20 years of experience in imaging algorithm research and development. His focus is in algorithms for camera applications, including algorithms and methods for the Pixim Wide Dynamic Range Image Quality test system.
Prior to Pixim, Ping led a team at Hewlett Packard Laboratories in developing printing algorithms for many HP laser and inkjet printers. Later, at HP Internet Imaging Organization, he managed a software team in the development of web servers for multi-resolution imaging applications. In 2005, Ping was VP and Chief Imaging Scientist at Nethra where he led an algorithm team to develop the second and third generation image signal processor for cell phone camera applications. Later he joined Insilica in the same capacity. The Insilica image signal processor business was acquired by Aptina Imaging in 2010.
Ping is an inventor with many US and international patents. He has published extensively and spoken at many professional conferences. He has served on IEEE and SPIE technical committees and co-chaired the SPIE Annual conference in Security and Watermarking of Multimedia Media from 1999 to 2009. Ping is currently an associated editor of the Journal of Electronic Imaging. Ping received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Jeff Jones - Director of Product Marketing
Jeff Jones is director of product marketing at Pixim and brings to the company product management experience in semiconductors and embedded systems. Prior to joining Pixim, Jeff was a senior engineering director at LSI Corporation, where he was responsible for digital video solutions for consumer electronics and professional broadcast applications. Jeff is a US patent holder and has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Irvine, and a MBA from California State University, Fullerton.
