Team
Manju Hegde, Managing Director
Manju Hegde is corporate vice president, AMD Global Business Unit, with responsibility for leading the development of the software ecosystem around AMD products. As head of AMD’s Content, Applications and Solutions team, Manju is responsible for driving and executing AMD’s ecosystem, strategy across the technology, marketing and business functions as well as directing AMD strategy and collaboration in engaging the computing ecosystem to shape the next generation of devices, environment, tools and application experiences made possible by the AMD‘s product roadmap.
Before joining AMD, Manju was vice president of CUDA technical marketing at NVIDIA, where he focused on training and enabling researchers and developers to leverage the parallel architecture and performance of the GPU for general purpose applications.
Prior to joining NVIDIA in 2008, Manju was co-founder and CEO of AGEIA Technologies (acquired by NVIDIA in 2008) since 2002, when he began his mission to minimize the challenge of physics in game development. From 1999 to 2001, Manju was co-founder and CTO of Celox Networks, which developed the industry’s leading edge router able to deliver high bandwidth applications with QoS. Manju was also a professor of electrical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and at Louisiana State University.
Manju earned his Bachelors of Electrical Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and his Ph. D in Computer Information and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also has his master’s degree in management from the University of Bombay.
Keith Witek, Managing Director
Keith Witek is corporate vice president for Corporate Development within the Office of Strategy at AMD. Prior to his position within the Office of Strategy, Keith was the Chief of Staff for AMD’s President and COO, and prior to that he was a Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at AMD, and a Director in AMD’s legal department serving the CTO’s Office, Innovative Systems Group, Embedded Computing Systems Division, Commercial Group, Consumer Group, Corporate Business Development, and Strategic Software Alliances.
Prior to joining AMD, Keith was co-managing attorney for the Technology Transactions Group of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati (WSGR) located in Austin, Texas. Prior to working for WSGR, he was counsel for various divisions of Motorola Inc. and counsel for Metrowerks. Keith’s practice has included business development, strategy, general contracts, technology transactions, client counseling, M&A, patent cross-licensing, patent prosecution, opinion drafting, and litigation support.
Keith has been an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law where he has taught IP and technology licensing, and has taught paralegal course work at ACC. He also has published several papers and spoken on various IP, business development, and contract related topics around the world. Keith is co-author of an Internet and IP Law Treatise published by West Publishing in which he wrote several chapters on IP creation, IP management, IP licensing, and technology transactions.
Keith is an inventor on over 30 issued US patents. He holds a BS in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas - Austin.
Ray Schuder, Managing Director
Ray Schuder joined AMD in October 2010 to manage investments and business development for AMD Ventures. Ray is also the Managing Director of the AMD Fusion Centers of Innovation. Ray served as a Board observer and led AMD’s investment in ViVu (acquired by Polycom). He also is a Board Observer and led AMD’s investments in CiiNow, Aviary, InContext and two other unannounced investments. Ray serves on the Board of Nuvixa and led AMD’s investment in BlueStacks. Prior to AMD, Ray spent 5 years with El Dorado Ventures (EDV) where he joined in 2005 as a Senior Associate and was promoted to Principal in 2007. At EDV he focused on early-stage investments in information technology companies. At EDV Ray sourced and led an investment in Scout Labs (acquired by Lithium Technologies).
Prior to joining El Dorado Ventures, Ray was a vice president with Pequot Ventures, where he focused on investments in hardware and communications. Previously, Ray was a director with Silicon Valley BancVentures, the venture capital arm of Silicon Valley Bank, where he managed the hardware practice. Prior to Silicon Valley BancVentures, Ray was a product manager with NVIDIA. Ray has also worked as a product manager at Loudcloud and as a product development and research engineer for Hewlett-Packard and HP Labs.
In addition to these roles, Ray has performed M&A advisory work for Broadview International, and has served as a technical consultant to Agilent Technologies and several venture-backed companies. Ray is a named inventor on eight U.S. patents. Ray graduated with highest honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Ray earned two Masters Degrees from the Stanford University Graduate School of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Systems Engineering) and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. At Stanford, Ray received an AIM Entrance Fellowship and earned the Stanford University Centennial Teaching Assistant Award.
Mike Woollems, Financial Officer
Mike Woollems is corporate vice president of tax at AMD. Mike joined AMD in 1982 and has oversight of AMD’s worldwide tax activities, including tax strategies, risk management and legal entity structuring. Prior to joining AMD he worked at National Semiconductor and Del Monte corporations primarily in the tax field. Mike has participated in and supported all of AMD’s M&A activities since joining the company and has helped direct several divestiture initiatives. Mike is Vice Chairman of the AMD Foundation and a member of AMD’s Administrative Committee with oversight of the company’s benefit plans. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Wichita State University, and his MBA in taxation from Golden Gate University.
Jonathan Wong, Principal - Office of Strategy
Jonathan Wong is principal in the Corporate Development group of AMD. His focus includes Corporate Ventures and M&A. Prior to joining AMD, he spent 5 years in Equity Research in the Technology sector at RBC Capital Markets, a Tier 1 bank in Canada. Jonathan is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and has an MBA degree from Queen’s University in Canada and a Master of Engineering degree from the University of Toronto.
Jean Louis, Operations Manager
Jean Louis is the Operations Manager for AMD Ventures focusing on the daily operations. She brings over 20 years of experience in program management, communications, and marketing to the AMD Ventures team. Prior to joining AMD in 2010, Jean owned businesses focusing on PR and marketing, and data security risk assessment and mitigation planning for small business for 10 years. Prior to that, Jean was with SEMATECH (a semiconductor manufacturing technology research consortium) for 10 years as a corporate communications manager. Jean has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Texas.
Preetha Parthasarathy, Sr Associate - Content, Applications and Solutions Team
Preetha Parthasarathy joined AMD Ventures as a Senior Associate in Jan 2012. She is responsible for business development, deal execution and post-investment support. She is part of AMD’s MBA rotation program and rotated through Corporate Development and Marketing prior to this role, most recently serving as Chief of Staff for the Chief Marketing Officer. She also worked part-time as a product manager at AMD during her MBA. She received her MS in Computer Engineering and MBA in Finance graduating with highest honors from The University of Texas. Before her MBA, she worked as a logic designer at Intel.