Laith Altimime, President, SEMI Europe
Biography
As President of SEMI Europe, Laith Altimime leads SEMI’s activities in Europe and Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He has overall responsibility for regional events, programs, membership, advocacy, and collaborative forums. Additionally, he manages and nurtures relationships with SEMI members in the region, as well as with local associations and constituents in industry, government, and academia. He provides support and services to SEMI members worldwide that have supply chain interests in Europe. Altimime has more than 25 years of experience in the industry, mostly in Europe. He has held leadership positions at Altis, Infineon, Qimonda, KLA-Tencor, Communicant Semiconductor AG, NEC Semiconductors, and imec. Altimime holds a BS from Heriot-Watt University, Scotland.
Biography
Cassandra joined SEMI Europe in 2018 to lead its operations, business development and strategic initiatives related to diversity and inclusion. In this role she is responsible for leading a culturally diverse team, enhancing member value, and directing operations for optimized financial performance. Prior to joining SEMI, she held the position Global Product Manager at Atotech for its semiconductor division. She began her career at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute as a Business Manager focused on technical programs for chemistry and equipment manufacturers and held project management roles in clean room operations and IT. Cassandra's written work has been published in leading technical magazines and presented at conferences globally. She holds a BS in Business Management, and Minor in Neuropsychology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Martin Stringer, Pro Vice Chancellor, Swansea University
Biography
Professor Martin Stringer was born in Tanzania, educated in South Yorkshire and undertook his first degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. Following a year in Tanzania, he completed his PhD at the University of Manchester focusing on the way in which congregations understand their worship, and spent five years doing church-related community work in Manchester’s eastern inner-city estates. In 1993, Professor Stringer took up a lectureship in the sociology and anthropology of religion at Birmingham University and has maintained a constant interest in Christian worship, the development of congregational studies in the UK and the wider role of religion in British society. In October 2007 he was awarded a chair in Liturgical and Congregational Studies. During his 23 years at the University of Birmingham, Professor Stringer was Head of Theology and Religion, Head of the College of Arts and Law and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor with responsibility for the University's strategies for employability, valuing teaching, equality and diversity, Africa and community relations. In 2015, Professor Stringer joined Swansea University as Pro-Vice Chancellor. He has overall responsibility for learning and teaching and student experience across the University. He has strategic responsibility for the student journey from recruitment and widening participation through to graduate outcomes. During his time at Swansea Professor Stringer has consistently worked with colleagues across the University to increase the student voice and to put the students at the centre of all decisions around learning and teaching and student welfare. This has led to consistently strong NSS outcomes, the award of the TEF Gold and recognition in national league tables and awards. External relations roles include interactions with HEFCW, Welsh Government, the HEA, local Further Education Colleges, Swansea City and County and South West Wales Reaching Wider. Professor Stringer’s own research is based on the anthropological methods of ethnography in detailed and extended studies of real-life situations as a means to make sense of religious behaviour; he established and ran the Worship in Birmingham Project from 1998-2003. Key monographs include: Discourses on Religious Diversity (Ashgate 2013); Rethinking the Origins of the Eucharist (SCM 2011); Contemporary Western Ethnography of the Definition of Religion (Continuum, 2008); A Sociological History of the Christian Worship(CUP, 2005); and his ground-breaking On the Perception of Worship (1999).