ISS Hokkaido 2025 Biography

Ajit Manocha is the president and CEO of SEMI, the global industry association serving the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing and design supply chain. Throughout his career, Manocha has been a champion of industry collaboration as a critical means of advancing technology for societal and economic prosperity. 
In his leadership role at SEMI, Manocha has broadened the association’s scope to fuel industry growth and foster collaboration on challenges such as geopolitical and sustainability concerns, the talent gap and supply chain disruptions. He has driven SEMI to evolve with the global microelectronics ecosystem as it rapidly expands to support smarter, connected applications based on artificial intelligence, machine learning and other disruptive technologies. 
Manocha was formerly CEO at GlobalFoundries. Prior to this, he held the role of Executive VP of worldwide operations at Spansion and earlier served as Executive VP and chief manufacturing officer (chief operations officer) at Philips Semiconductors. He began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories as a research scientist and was granted more than a dozen patents related to semiconductor manufacturing processes that served as the foundation for modern microelectronics manufacturing. He has served on the boards of SEMI, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA). 
Manocha has overseen the formation of more than 20 joint ventures and M&As over his career. Out of these, some of the most noteworthy are the manufacturing JV between AT&T and Cirrus Logic, the foundry JV SSMC between Philips Semiconductors and TSMC, the back-end JV Suzhou ASEN Semiconductors between Philips Semiconductors and ASE, and the spinoff of Philips Semiconductors (now NXP Semiconductors) from Royal Philips Electronics. 
Manocha served on President Obama’s committees for “Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships” and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST). 
Manocha holds the rare distinction of being inducted into two Hall of Fames. In 2021, VLSIresearch (now TechInsights) added Manocha to its Semiconductor Industry Hall of Fame for his leadership of SEMI efforts to address geopolitical trade tensions as well as for his initiative in navigating the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting SEMI and the microelectronics industry. In 2020, Manocha was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame, and VLSIresearch named him an “All Star of the Semiconductor Industry” for his visionary leadership in 2019 to restructure SEMI to represent the expanded electronics supply chain.

Thomas A. Piliszczuk has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Currently he holds position of Executive Vice-President of Worldwide Strategic Partnerships and Strategy at imec, the world-leading R&D and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technologies.
Prior to joining imec, Piliszczuk was at SOITEC, the global leader in engineered substrates for semiconductor markets where, as Executive Vice-President for Global Business and Strategy he led the company to a major growth in revenue and profit over last years.
Earlier in his career Piliszczuk was at KLA, the leader in Yield Management Solutions, Wafer inspection and Metrology for Semiconductor industry where he held various management positions driving products and solutions.
Piliszczuk also worked for DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Programs Agency) and SEMATECH focused on the development of the next generation semiconductor lithography technologies.
During his career he held assignments across different regions in the world: United States, Taiwan, Japan, China, Singapore, and Europe.
Thomas Piliszczuk received his Electrical Engineering Degree from Gdansk University of Technology in Poland, Ph.D. Degree from Heidelberg University in Germany, and MBA from Stanford University.

Masataka (Masa) joined NVIDIA in 2014. As Japan Country Manager, he is responsible for establishing relationships with customers and supporting the eco-system, to expand business in Japan.
Before joining NVIDIA, Masa spent more than 20 years at Texas Instruments Japan, with management roles in many areas such as sales, marketing, technical support, and business development.
Masa has an MBA from Tokyo Metropolitan University.

Tomoharu Watanabe is Executive Vice President and Executive Officer of Kioxia Corporation. He also holds the role of Executive Vice President and Executive officer of Kioxia Holdings Corporation. He has an accomplished background in the memory industry, bringing about 40 years of experience across roles at Kioxia, Toshiba Memory and Toshiba Corporation. He joined Toshiba Corporation in 1986. He was promoted to General Manager of Yokkaichi Plant in 2013 and Vice President of Memory Division in 2015. He also held the role of Executive Officer, Corporate Vice President in 2016. Following the establishment of Toshiba Memory in 2017, he was named Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Memory Division.

Clark Tseng is the Senior Director of Market Intelligence at SEMI, where he leads the development of global market research and analysis for the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. With a deep expertise in forecasting and analyzing microelectronics industries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific and China markets, Mr. Tseng provides critical insights into the dynamics of IDM, Fabless, Foundry, Memory, and OSAT sectors. Prior to joining SEMI, he held strategic roles at Mediatek and Qimonda, focusing on market intelligence and competitive analysis. Mr. Tseng holds degrees in Business Administration and International Relations from National Chengchi University in Taiwan.

Masaru leads the Semiconductor Practice in Asia and is a core member of our leadership team in Advanced Industries. He partners with clients across sectors on operational, transformational, and strategic initiatives. Prior to joining McKinsey, Masaru was the co-founder and chief scientist of a private-equity-backed cleantech startup in the U.S. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.S. in Applied Physics from Harvard University.

Lily Feng, President of SEMI China. Lily has delivered speeches at numerous domestic and international semiconductor summits. Moreover, she has published articles in professional media. Lily focuses on the China semiconductor industry ecosystem. In her work, she is committed to pinpointing challenges and opportunities, delving deep to develop incisive insights into the semiconductor industry's supply chain. Additionally, she has been actively involved in establishing and developing several crucial committees. Through these efforts, she aims to drive industrial growth and provide more comprehensive insights into the industry. Having dedicated 17 years to SEMI in progressively senior positions, Lily has played a pivotal role in propelling forward SEMI's core initiatives and nurturing vital industry connections. Her unwavering dedication lies in promoting collaboration within the semiconductor industry supply chain and facilitating the overall business development of the industry.

Takahide Kiuchi started his career as an economist in 1987, as he joined Nomura Research Institute. In 1990, he joined Nomura Research Institute Deutschland. In 1996, he started covering US economy in New York Office. He transferred to Nomura Securities in 2004, and four years later, he was assigned to Head of Economic Research Department and Chief Economist in 2007. In 2012, He was nominated by Cabinet and approved by Diet as Member of the Policy Board, the committee of the highest decision making in Bank of Japan. He implemented decisions on the Bank’s important policies and operations including monetary policy for five years.

Special Assistant to the Representative of TECRO Japan
Director, Department of International Affairs, Democratic Progressive Party
Professor, Public Policy School, Hokkaido University, Japan
Professor, Tokoha University, Japan
Senior Advisor, National Security Council, Taiwan
Chief Executive Officer, Institute for National Defense and Security Research

Atsuyoshi Koike, Ph.D.
CEO, Rapidus Corporation

ATSUYOSHI KOIKE established Rapidus Corporation, a Japanese advanced logic semiconductor company in August 2022.  Prior to this role, Koike had served as President of Western Digital Japan since April 2018. Prior to joining Western Digital, he held the position of president and chief executive officer at Trecenti Technologies, Inc., as well as served as corporate chief engineer for Renesas Technology Corporation. Prior to that, he held senior manufacturing management and executive leadership positions at Hitachi, Ltd. Koike received the B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Waseda University and Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from Tohoku University.