Team

Maxim Ershov – CEO and CTO

Maxim is a scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur. His expertise is in physics, mathematics, semiconductor devices, and EDA. Prior to co-founding Diakopto, Maxim was responsible for parasitic extraction at Apple’s Silicon Engineering Group. Before Apple, he was CTO of Silicon Frontline Technology, where he architected and successfully brought to market several industry-leading tools such as R3D and Rmap. Maxim also worked as device engineer at PDF Solutions, T-RAM Semiconductor and Foveon.

Prior to moving to the industry, he was a professor at Georgia State University and University of Aizu. Maxim graduated with a Ph.D. in Solid State Electronics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and won the first place in the Physics Olympiads (USSR) for high schools and for universities.

Oleg Syrel – VP and Chief Software Architect

Oleg is an expert software architect and developer who has held leading engineering positions at several companies and startups before co-founding Diakopto. At Roche, he developed software for a GPU-accelerated high-throughput DNA sequencing platform. At D2S, Oleg created the massively parallel computational geometry engine of TrueMask MDP, the only GPU-accelerated model-based MDP solution for complex curvilinear masks. Before that, he owned the software development infrastructure at Silicon Frontline and was responsible for the integration of its F3D and R3D products into IC design flows based on solutions from the leading EDA vendors.

Early in his career, Oleg worked at BindKey Technologies as a key developer of a parallel DRC engine and an IC layout editor, and subsequently at Mentor Graphics, where he made various enhancements to core components of Calibre MDP. Oleg graduated with an M.S. in Computer Systems and Software Engineering from Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics.

Kelvin Khoo – Chief Operating Officer

Kelvin brings 25 years of experience in corporate and business development, strategic marketing and IC design to Diakopto. He was most recently VP of Business Development at nusemi (acquired by Cadence), a startup which developed the industry’s first 112Gbps SerDes. Prior to that, Kelvin was VP of Business Development at NetLogic Microsystems (acquired by Broadcom for $3.7 billion), where he was responsible for M&A, strategic investments and corporate diversification strategy. He subsequently led M&A activities for Broadcom’s Infrastructure division. He has held various management and engineering positions at Intel, Level One Communications, GlobespanVirata, Conexant and STMicroelectronics, and has served as an advisor or consultant at Samsung, Accton and several successful startups. Kelvin graduated with an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Casey Jones – VP of Marketing

Casey has spent most of her career in the EDA and semiconductor IP industries, working in marketing, business development and strategic positioning in both publicly-traded and startup companies. Her background includes executive management positions at Cadence, Artisan (acquired by ARM), Chip Estimate (acquired by Cadence), Integrated Silicon Systems (acquired by ArcSys), Voci Technologies (acquired by Medallia) and Agere Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Patheon). She holds MA and BA degrees from Stanford University, and her MBA from the Tepper School at Carnegie Mellon University.

Alexander Antonov – Director of Product Engineering

Alexander brings over 20 years of EDA experience and expertise in data structures, algorithms and circuit simulation to Diakopto. During his career, he spent 10 years at Synopsys, focusing on post-layout simulation and reliability analysis for integrated circuits. Prior to Synopsys, he held senior positions in R&D at Magma Design Automation developing solutions for statistical timing analysis for advanced integrated circuits. Earlier in his career he was involved in transistor-level simulation, and cell and block characterization of ICs. Alexander holds an M.S. degree in Radiophysics and Electronics from Belarusian State University.

Kaiwin Lee – Director of R&D

Kaiwin is a seasoned technology executive and successful entrepreneur in EDA. As a co-founder and COO of ATopTech, he helped grow the company’s revenue, customer base and profitability which led to the successful acquisition by Siemens EDA. He played a pivotal role in managing the engineering team and developing the high-quality, ultra-fast Linear System solver for the placement of standard-cells (6X faster than competitive solutions). Kaiwin was most recently SVP of Electronics Technology at Multibeam Corp., where he was responsible for developing all the software for the company’s e-beam system. He has previously held engineering management positions at Tera Systems, Arcsys/Avant and Intel. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale University.