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    Steven Johnston

    Vice President, Head of Technology Innovation and Enablement
    EMD Electronics
    Tempe, AZ, United States

    Dr. Steven Johnston is Vice President, Head of Technology Transformation and Enablement at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany / EMD Electronics where he heads the corporate global technology scouting organization responsible for identifying and enabling new technologies and products for business growth. In 2023, Dr. Johnston founded and is leading Merck KGaA’s Bioconvergence program that brings together technologies from Merck KGaA’s Electronics, Life Science and Healthcare business sectors for disruptive product innovation. He is a member of Merck KGaA’s electronics technology leadership board that oversees new technology development programs for both the semiconductor and optronics business fields and is a member of Merck KGaA’s venture capital investment executive committee for electronics ecosystem investments.

    Previously Dr. Johnston was at Intel Corporation for 21 years where he was Senior Director of Supplier Technology and Industry Development. In this role, he was responsible for managing Intel’s research and early development supply chain programs with equipment, material, component, and design supply chain companies, worldwide consortia, global government funding agencies for new process technology development, and Intel’s technology and manufacturing strategic market research. Dr. Johnston also oversaw Intel’s global supply chain IP and collaboration processes and executive alignment of Intel’s silicon technology roadmap with peer memory and foundry manufacturers. Additionally, Dr. Johnston was responsible for connecting Intel’s supply chain roadmaps to Semiconductor Industry Association, SEMI, and related industry ecosystem engagements.

    Dr. Johnston is a member of the SEMI Board of Industry Leaders, SEMI CTO committee, SIA CTO committee, SEMI Smart Data-AI advisory council, SEMI Smart MedTech governing council, co-chairs SEMI’s Industry Strategy Symposium, PhRMA New Approach Methodologies committee, EvoNexus technology selection committee as well as the IIT-Madras silicon photonics and University of Florida ChemE advisory boards. He previously served for several years on the SEMATECH and G450C Board of Directors and IMEC’s executive advisory council on behalf of Intel Corporation, was a founding member of the SIA/SRC Semiconductor Research Vision initiative and served on the advisory board of the IEEE Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing conference. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida, holds 17 patents and has authored >60 publications/presentations.

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