Management Team
Dean Duffy - Chairman of the Board
Dean has held management and executive positions in the semiconductor industry for twenty years, serving in supply of process equipment, materials and services. At FSI-International, he was vice president of sales and global field operations. With Air Products and Chemicals he was president for an electronics joint venture and served as director of their Asian electronics business. Dean has been instrumental in structuring and overseeing international joint venture companies across twelve countries, which were developed to enhance customer engagement. He provides Confoe with significant discipline in management processes, business development and organizational enhancement, in addition to sales-field operations and marketing engagement.
Kirby Hicks - CEO and Founder
Kirby brings over twenty years experience in the semiconductor industry. Most recently he was General Manger of the Ramp Performance Division at Applied Materials, as well as Managing Director of Global Field Operations. Kirby is credited with providing the vision and leadership that enabled the establishment and institutionalization of projectized operations, which standardized capital equipment installation, improving service levels and reducing cost and cycle times company-wide. Prior to joining Applied Materials, Kirby served as Vice President and Quality Director for Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector, World Wide Sales and Marketing. At Motorola, he was also the Chairman of the Corporate Customer Satisfaction Council, and led the Semiconductor Sector Project Management Initiative. Kirby has devoted his career to streamlining and integrating business processes at the enterprise level, in order to deliver greater service and productivity to customers, while reducing costs to his company. Kirby holds a B.S. in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Michael Fritsch - President & COO
For over two decades, Mike has led large high-technology organizations. Having held a number of management and executive positions within the semiconductor industry, Mike worked over fifteen years at Applied Materials where he most recently served as Managing Director. At Applied Materials, Mike established the Global Field Operations Organization and Global Technical Training. He had strategic responsibility for the global field workforce and the infrastructure for the global service business. Mike led a number of corporate-wide initiatives including those that established field workforce in-fab connectivity, workforce certification, Knowledge Management infrastructure, Synchronized operations, and Reverse Logistics. Mike also served as the Intel Account Manager for Service and Spares, and held a number of positions within manufacturing.
Mike holds a B.S. in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA in Technology Managment from the University of Phoenix. He is a frequent speaker on field service, operations, and technology and has presented to numerous professional forums including Field Service 2007, Interphex 2006, and AFSMI in Austin. Mike has appeared in over 20 publications including Advance for Medical Laboratory Professionals, Profit Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Tom Lipscomb - Board Member and Co-Founder
Tom possesses nearly twenty years of electronics and semiconductor industry experience, having held sales, engineering, manager and director positions. Tom is currently the Vice President of Software as a Serivce (SaaS) at Hyperion Solutions. He previously served as President at Confoe Inc. While at Applied Materials Inc., he launched the “Ramp Performance Management” (RPMTM) product globally. As Senior Director there, he initiated market research, product conception and design, and piloted product launches in Europe and Asia. Prior to that, he was a director in the customer service division, where he projectized operations and improved productivity globally. Tom was also a director of field quality for world marketing in the computing and peripherals segment at Motorola SPS. Additional experience includes manufacturing management, manufacturing process research, project management and sales.
Paul Nguyen - Software Architect
Paul Nguyen is a managing architect for Confoe. Paul has over 15 years of software industry experience. He has successfully designed, developed, and deployed numerous large scale enterprise applications for global corporations and startups such as General Motors, IBM, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Amdahl, Applied Materials, Hewlett Packard, OneDemocracy, and ShipServ. Paul’s breadth of knowledge and agility in software technology is exemplified in his diverse experience, which spans many levels of the software technology stack, and includes accomplishments in Enterprise Portal Architecture, Large-Scale Databases, and Enterprise Application Integration.
Paul is a practicing member of the Worldwide Institute of Software Architects, and is involved in research and standards work in the areas of software design, databases, and enterprise software architecture. Paul also sits on the technology advisory board for Woodside Capital Partners.
Clark Miller P.E.- Vice President Project Manager/
Professional Engineer
Kim Normington - Board Member
Kim has over two decades of financial management experience at Fortune 500 companies and smaller organizations. While at Applied Materials, he served as finance director of Europe, controller of Japan, controller of the central manufacturing division, and corporate planning & analysis director. He has also served as controller of multi-plant manufacturing for Mattel Mexico and controller of Progressive Insurance’s Financial Service Group. Kim’s areas of expertise include development and installation of cost management systems for manufacturing and service operations, implementation of major productivity and cost reduction programs, and development of plans for operational and financial success.
Steve Ou - Board Member
Steve possesses over forty years of experience in the semiconductor industry. He began his career at Texas Instruments where he held both design and process engineering roles. He has held senior operations and executive positions at Intel and Rockwell. Steve provides direction based upon his extensive understanding of the industry, as well as in-depth insight regarding global business operations with an emphasis on the Asia region.