Marwan was the Senior Director of Engineering for the Communications Technology Division of Xilinx managing a large multi-site team of engineers responsible for high-speed serial I/O development for FPGAs in 130nm, 90nm and 65nm CMOS products. This included the responsibility for analog, digital, and mixed-signal IC design as well as modeling, applications engineering, signal integrity, test and packaging issues. Prior to that, he played a key role in the evolution and management of communications IC startup RocketChips, Inc, a leading developer of high-speed CMOS transceivers. As Senior Technical Director and Vice President of Wired Products, he worked with the company's key customers on standards based products like IEEE1394, Gigabit Ethernet and XAUI in addition to high-speed ADC and DAC products.

He also was a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University for several years and Director of the Analog and Mixed-Signal Design Center there. He has co-authored over 70 technical publications, and is a co-inventor of over 11 patents in the areas of circuit simulation, magneto-resistive memories, implantable ICs, ADCs, DACs and high-speed serial I/Os. Marwan received his BS in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University, and the MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.

Mike has over 21 years of experience in the communications industry with the vast majority of that time in the semiconductor business. He most recently held the position of Director of Business Development & Strategic Marketing at Intel where his responsibilities included market analysis, product, technology, and business planning. He also served as a corporate representative and resource in various business matters for Level One/Intel. In previous assignments Mr. McConnell has served as Director of Business Development, Area Sales Manager, Marketing Manager, and other marketing and sales positions.