Kyma Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of ultra-high purity crystalline gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) materials and related products and services, today announced several new hires and staffing changes.

Dr. Heather Splawn has joined Kyma in the newly created position of Director of Business Development and is responsible for helping the company capitalize on many new business growth opportunities.  Heather recently completed her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Duke University and has a track record of leadership, with experience including President of Duke University’s Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC), President of Upsilon Phi Epsilon – an International Honor Society for the Computing and Information Disciplines, and Director of Operations for The DOUGHMAN – an important Durham, NC based charity race.

Dr. Troy Baker and Dr. Ziad Herro have joined Kyma as Crystal Growth Engineers and are responsible for helping advance the company’s GaN and AlN crystal growth manufacturing capabilities.  Both Troy and Ziad have very strong backgrounds in the physics and engineering of wide bandgap semiconductor crystal growth.  Troy received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) under the direction of Shuji Nakamura, while Ziad received his PhD in Condensed Matter Physics jointly between The University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and The University of Montpellier 2, Groupe d'Etude des Semiconducteurs, France.

Additionally, Mr. Greg Mulholland was promoted to the role of Director of Operations, while Vice President of Business Development was added to Dr. Edward Preble’s existing COO role – his new title is COO and VP Business Development.

Dr. Keith Evans, Kyma’s President and CEO, commented, “The Kyma team is growing in many important ways.  The leadership shown by Ed and Greg is making great impact throughout our organization.  The technical contributions by Troy and Ziad are already accelerating progress in our substrate development and production activities.  And with the addition of Heather, we can now apply proper bandwidth to a number of external opportunities.  Going forward, I am bullish on our ability to continue to stimulate and penetrate the market for advanced nitride semiconductor materials – through great customer focus, a relentless pursuit of continuous product improvement and new product development, and a keen eye towards new business development opportunities. “

About Kyma Technologies

Kyma is a leading supplier of crystalline gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) materials for a broad range of high performance nitride semiconductor device applications.

The market for nitride semiconductor devices is expected to surpass $30B over the long term. The combined addressable market for GaN and AlN substrates is expected to surpass $500M by 2010.

For more information about Kyma Technologies, visit www.kymatech.com, e-mail info@kymatech.com, or call the company directly at 919.789.8880.

Kyma is a registered trademark of Kyma Technologies, Inc.