ClariPhy Management Team

Nariman Yousefi, Chief Executive Officer and President

Nariman Yousefi previously was a founding member and senior executive at Broadcom Corporation Networking group since 1994, where he was instrumental in establishing Broadcom as the leading supplier of Ethernet ICs. During this time he was responsible for a rich portfolio of networking products including Optical and Copper physical layer ICs (PHYs), WAN/Metro/SMB/Enterprise switches, Ethernet controllers and communication processors. While at Broadcom, he held multiple executive roles including Senior VP and General Manager of the Enterprise Networking Group and Senior VP of Infrastructure Technologies.  Prior to joining Broadcom, Mr. Yousefi held engineering management positions with Standard Microsystems and Western Digital Corporation.  Mr. Yousefi studied electrical engineering at the University of California, Davis and received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pacific and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Oscar E. Agazzi, Vice President and Chief Systems Architect

Dr. Oscar E. Agazzi is a recognized expert in the fields of Communications and Signal Processing. Prior to joining ClariPhy, Dr. Agazzi worked at Broadcom Corporation, where he was the chief architect of the BCM5400 family of Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) transceivers. He also played an instrumental role in the development of Broadcom’s 10-Gigabit Ethernet optical and copper transceivers. Previously he served at Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories and was appointed Bell Labs Fellow, the most prestigious distinction awarded by Bell Labs to its research staff.

Dr. Agazzi holds an Electrical and Electronic Engineer degree and a Licentiate in Physics from the University of Cordoba, Argentina and a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He has 40 patents issued or pending, has published more than 40 technical papers in journals and conferences and is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Tim Heenan, Vice President of Operations

Mr. Heenan brings to ClariPhy over 25 years of semiconductor industry experience, including positions as the top operations executive for public and private companies.  He recently served as SVP Manufacturing Operations for Nextwave Wireless, and he was VP Operations of Quorum Systems during its successful acquisition by Spreadtrum Communications.  Previously he was VP Operations of MMC Networks, where he was instrumental in growing the company's annual revenue to $100 million and completing an IPO.  Following the acquisition of MMC by AMCC, Mr. Heenan became a corporate officer of AMCC and held the role of SVP Operations and Quality. Mr. Heenan earned a B.S. in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute and an M.S. in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University.

Christopher Kitching, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Kitching has worked in the world of semiconductors and communications for more than 15 years. He began his career as a mixed signal IC designer at MicroLinear Corporation specializing in 100 Mbit/s Ethernet transceiver development. Subsequently, Mr. Kitching became a Principal at Forrest Binkley & Brown Venture Capital, where he was a board member and observer for a multitude of startups in the optical and communications areas including SpectraSensors, Vativ, Modetek, Teradient, and Comcore. Mr. Kitching earned a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Phi Beta Kappa, and received an MBA from Harvard University.

Reza Norouzian, Vice President of World Wide Sales and Business Development

Mr. Norouzian brings to ClariPhy over 25 years of executive level sales and general management experience in communications and storage semiconductors. He joined ClariPhy from Link-a-Media Devices where as a co-founder he helped introduce iterative coding technology to the hard disk drive (HDD) and solid state drive markets. Mr. Norouzian’s prior roles include vice president of worldwide sales at Vixel Corporation where he was instrumental in re-engineering Vixel to be a successful merchant storage system on chip (SoC) supplier to market leaders such as HP, IBM, NetApp and Fujitsu prior to its acquisition by Emulex; vice president and general manager for multi-service ASSPs at Transwitch; and general manager at Exis where he led the effort to establish an alliance between NEC and DataPath as a market leader for HDD read channels and SoCs. Mr. Norouzian worked 10 years at GEC Plessey where he held variety of management roles in marketing, sales and business unit management in storage and wireless communications. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Scott R. Powell, Vice President of Engineering

Dr. Powell has acquired over 25 years experience in the semiconductor industry building and leading cutting edge design teams in all aspects of complex DSP, communications systems, and high speed ASIC design.  His accomplishments include over 60 issued and pending patents, numerous journal and conference publications, and dozens of ASIC products in high volume production.  Prior to joining ClariPhy, Dr. Powell served as Senior Director responsible for all Ethernet copper PHY products throughout Broadcom Corporation.   He developed a large team of industry leading talent across 4 US and international locations.  He led the creation of the industry’s first 40nm 10GBASE-T transceiver, helped Broadcom enjoy gigabit PHY market leadership, and played a key role in the development and introduction of specialized Ethernet PHYs into the automotive market.  Dr. Powell earned a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Norman L. Swenson, Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Swenson, a co-founder of ClariPhy, previously served as CTO and VP Engineering at Kestrel Solutions, a maker of optical networking systems for local exchange carriers. Prior to Kestrel, he was Chief Engineer and Program Manager for Advanced Communications at Lockheed Martin, where he directed research in multi-gigabit communication systems. Dr. Swenson received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he developed novel applications of signal processing for fiber optic communication channels. He received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Physics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. Dr. Swenson has sixteen patents issued or pending and has authored several journal and conference publications.

Dr. Paul Voois, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer

Dr. Voois, co-founded ClariPhy in 2002 and served as it's Chief Executive Officer until 2011.  He previously served as CEO of 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ:EGHT), a provider of voice over IP technology. Before assuming the CEO role at 8x8, he led the development of 8x8's consumer videophone product line. Dr. Voois received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where his research focused on digital communications and signal processing. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University, summa cum laude. Dr. Voois is an inventor on 14 issued U.S. patents.