Corporate governance

Welcome to the Corporate Governance page of the Vicor Investor Website. Vicor is committed to the highest standards of ethical behavior and corporate conduct. All of Vicor's directors, officers, and employees have a responsibility to serve the shareholders in all aspects of their jobs with honesty, fairness and integrity. The corporate governance information presented here is intended to help investors understand Vicor's governance practices and, in particular, the composition, independence and responsibilities of the Board of Directors. Vicor policies not only are consistent with the law and the rules of the NASDAQ Stock Market, LLC., they also ensure that Vicor operates in the best interest of its shareholders.

Corporate governance practices

• Code of Business Conduct
• Supplier Code of Business Conduct
• Anti-Corruption and FCPA Compliance Policy 
• Audit Committee Charter 
• Compensation Committee Charter
• Criteria for Nomination as a New Director

Board of directors

Patrizio Vinciarelli

Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Vinciarelli founded the Corporation in 1981 and has been Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer since that time. Prior to founding the Corporation, from 1977 until 1980, he was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and an Instructor at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. From 1973 through 1976, he was a Fellow at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Vinciarelli received his doctorate in Physics from the University of Rome, Italy. Dr. Vinciarelli received the prestigious 2019 IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award for lifetime achievement and holds more than 150 patents for power conversion technology.

James F. Schmidt

Corporate Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, and Secretary

Mr. Schmidt joined the Corporation in June 2021. Prior to joining Vicor, Mr. Schmidt served in a variety of leadership roles in Finance, Engineering, Operations and Sales at Analog Devices, Inc., a manufacturer of high-performance analog, mixed-signal and digital signal processing integrated circuits. Beginning his career in wafer fabrication in 1984, Mr. Schmidt held positions of increasing responsibility in Quality Assurance, Operations, Finance, Sales Operations and culminating in his position as Vice-President, Global Broad Market, Channel Sales and Sales Operations. Mr. Schmidt has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Claudio Tuozzolo

Corporate Vice President,  President Vicor Power Components

Mr. Tuozzolo has been President, Vicor Power Systems since Picor Corporation was merged with and into Vicor in May 2018.  Previously, he had been President of Picor since 2003. Prior to that, he had been Director of Integrated Circuit Engineering for the Corporation, from February 2003 to November 2003, and Manager of Integrated Circuit Design, from 2001 to February 2003. Before joining the Corporation in 2001, Mr. Tuozzolo was a Principal Design Engineer for SIPEX Corporation, from 1999 to 2001. Mr. Tuozzolo has authored nine U.S. patents in semiconductor design. He attended the University of Rome and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.

Samuel J. Anderson

Mr. Anderson has been the Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of IceMOS Technology Corporation, a privately-held developer and manufacturer of specialized semiconductor substrates, as well as high voltage power switching devices utilizing its proprietary technology, since 2002. Mr. Anderson was the Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Great Wall Semiconductor Corporation (“GWS”), of which the Corporation was an owner of non-voting convertible preferred stock, from 2002 to September 2015, when GWS was acquired by Intersil Corporation. Previously, Mr. Anderson was Vice President of Corporate Business Development of ON Semiconductor Corporation, a supplier of semiconductors (from 1999 to 2001) and held various positions within the semiconductor operations of Motorola, Inc., the predecessor organization (from 1984 to 1999). Mr. Anderson also served, from 2001 to 2011, as non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Advanced Analogic Technologies Inc., a supplier of power management semiconductors, when the company was acquired by Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Mr. Anderson holds numerous U.S. patents for semiconductor technologies. He received an M.S. in Microelectronics from Arizona State University, an M.S. in Physics from Queen’s University of Belfast, and a B.S. in Electronics from the University of Ulster.

Jason L. Carlson

Mr. Carlson has been the Chief Executive Officer of congatec AG, a technology and service provider for embedded computing solutions, since 2015. Previously, Mr. Carlson was President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as a member of the Board of Directors, of QD Vision, Inc., a privately-held developer of nanomaterial-based solutions for advanced display and lighting applications, from 2010 to 2015. From 2010 to 2011, Mr. Carlson also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Advanced Analogic Technologies, Inc., a publicly-traded developer of power management semiconductors, which was acquired by Skyworks Solutions, Inc. in January 2012. From 2006 until joining QD Vision in 2010, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Emo Labs, Inc., a privately-held developer of innovative audio speaker technology. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Carlson was President and Chief Executive Officer of Semtech Corporation, a publicly-traded vendor of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, with an emphasis on power management applications. From 1999 to 2002, he was Vice President & General Manager for the Crystal Product Division and the Consumer Products & Data Acquisition Division of Cirrus Logic, Inc., a publicly-traded vendor of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors for consumer and industrial applications. Mr. Carlson joined Cirrus Logic in 1999 when that company acquired AudioLogic, Inc., of which he had been Chief Executive Officer. He began his career as a founder of ReSound Corporation, a pioneering developer of digital hearing aids, which completed its initial public offering in 1993.

Estia J. Eichten

Dr. Eichten, an early investor who contributed to the founding of the Corporation, has held various positions with the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory since 1981, being named a Senior Scientist in 1989. Earlier, he had been an Associate Professor of Physics at Harvard University. Dr. Eichten received both his B.S. and Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow and currently is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2011, Dr. Eichten and three collaborators were awarded the prestigious J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in acknowledgement of outstanding achievement in particle physics theory. While a Director of the Corporation, he has served since July 2000 as a Director of VLT, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Corporation, which owns a majority of the Corporation’s patents.

Michael S. McNamara

Corporate Vice President, General Manager, Operations

Mr. McNamara has served as our Corporate Vice President, General Manager, Operations, since 2015. Mr. McNamara held the positions of Corporate Vice President, Quality and Technical Operations, from 2011 to 2015, Vice President, Quality and Technical Operation of the Corporation’s Brick Business Unit from 2008 to 2011, Vice President, Quality of the Corporation’s Brick Business Unit from 2006 to 2008, Senior Director of Quality from 2001 to 2008, Manager of Quality, Data and Analysis from 1999 to 2001 and Senior Quality Engineer from 1995 to 1999. Prior to joining the Corporation in 1995, Mr. McNamara was employed by Alpha Industries Inc., the predecessor to Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Mr. McNamara received a B.S. in Industrial Technology from the University of Lowell.

Philip D. Davies

Corporate Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing

Mr. Davies has served as our Corporate Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, since February 2011. Prior to joining the Corporation, Mr. Davies was employed by the Solid State Light Engine business unit of OSRAM Sylvania as Business Creation Team Leader from September 2010 to February 2011. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Davies held the position of Vice President, Sales and Marketing, with NoblePeak Vision Corporation, a developer of night vision camera cores. From 1995 to 2006, Mr. Davies served in various positions with Analog Devices, Inc., a manufacturer of high-performance analog, mixed signal and digital signal processing integrated circuits, most recently as Director of World Wide Business Development. From 1987 to 1995, Mr. Davies served in a number of positions with Allegro MicroSystems, Inc., a manufacturer of high-performance power and sensor integrated circuits, most recently as Vice President, Engineering. Mr. Davies received a B.S.E.E. and a Masters degree in Power Electronics from the University of Glamorgan.

Andrew D'Amico

Mr. D’Amico, age 59, has served in the role of general counsel for intellectual property matters since January 2006.  Prior to his engagement by the Company, he had 18 years of private practice experience in the field of patent law, including patent prosecution, litigation, licensing and counseling in diverse technological areas, most recently in the New York office of Fish & Richardson P.C.  Mr. D’Amico received a law degree from The George Washington University’s National Law Center and an electrical engineering degree (B.S.E.E., Magna Cum Laude) from the N.J. Institute of Technology. Prior to entering law school, he was a design engineer in the aerospace industry.  Mr. D’Amico currently serves on a non-profit board for High-Tech LA, a charter high school and middle school in Los Angeles.

M. Michael Ansour

Mr. Ansour has served as Managing Partner of March Partners LLC, an event driven investment firm based in New York, NY, since 1992 and as a director of The Hertz Foundation, for which he also serves as chairman of the Foundation’s Investment Committee, since 2008. He has also served as a member of the board of Servco Pacific Inc., one of the largest private companies in Hawaii, since 2000. Servco Pacific Inc. is the distributor of Toyota and Lexus automobiles in Hawaii and owns dealerships in Hawaii and Australia. Previously, Mr. Ansour worked in mergers and acquisitions at The First Boston Corporation, was an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, and clerked for the Honorable John J. Gibbons of the United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Ansour is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received a B.A. in math and physics and a Ph.D. in mathematical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Masters of Mathematics (Part III of the Maths Tripos (Cosmology)) from Cambridge University, and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

Zmira Lavie

Ms. Lavie has been a Partner of M&T Semiconductor, a consulting firm serving professionals and organizations throughout the semiconductor ecosystem, since January 2020. Previously, Ms. Lavie was with Tower Semiconductor, a manufacturer of integrated circuits using specialty process technologies, from 1988 to 2019. Ms. Lavie was appointed Tower Semiconductor’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Transfer, Optimization and development Process Services (“TOPS”) in 2018, after serving as Vice President of Process Engineering R&D and General Manager of TOPS since 2007. During her tenure, she grew TOPS from inception to annual revenues of approximately $200 million. Ms. Lavie was a member of the Board of Directors of Tower Partners Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (TPSCo), a semiconductor manufacturing firm, from 2014 to 2019. Ms. Lavie has over 30 years of experience within the semiconductor industry, including leading diverse business initiatives, R&D complex projects and processes development. She has expertise in thin films metallization and process integration and holds several patents within this area. Ms. Lavie received a B.S. in chemical engineering from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.

John Shen

Dr. Shen has been a Professor and Director at the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering of Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, Canada, since January 2022. Previously, Dr. Shen had been the Grainger Endowed Chair Professor of the Illinois Institute of Technology from January 2013 to December 2021. Earlier, he held various positions, including Senior Principal Staff Engineer, with Motorola Inc. from 1994 to 1999. He was on the faculty of the University of Central Florida from 2004 to 2012 and the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1999 to 2004. Dr. Shen served as Chief Scientist and member of the Board of Directors of the Great Wall Semiconductor Corporation (now a division of Renesas Electronics) from 2002 to 2012, during which time he invented the world’s first sub-mΩ lateral power MOSFET for ultrahigh density DC-DC power converters. He served the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS), a professional society with over 10,000 members, in various capacities including as Vice President of Products, AdCom member at large, general chair, technical program chair, and/or organizing committee member of over 30 international conferences. He is Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors and Fellow of IEEE. Dr. Shen has 32 years of academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial experience in power electronics, power semiconductor devices, renewable energy systems, microgrids, transportation electrification, sensors and actuators. He has published over 300 journal and conference papers and several book chapters, received two Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transaction Prize Paper awards and holds 18 U.S. patents. Dr. Shen received his B.S. from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and M.S. and doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, all in electrical engineering.

Committee composition

Members of the Audit Committee:

• Jason L. Carlson (Audit Committee Financial Expert)
• Estia J. Eichten
• M. Michael Ansour

Members of the Compensation Committee:

• Jason L. Carlson, Chairman
• Estia J. Eichten
• M. Michael Ansour