Alan Kramer
President & CEO

Alan Kramer is president, CEO and founder, of UPEK, Inc., which was launched as a venture-backed spin-off from STMicroelectronics in 2004.

Prior to leading the spin-off of UPEK, Alan was a vice president of STMicroelectronics and director of the TouchChip business unit, where he pioneered the silicon fingerprint sensor business within the company. Before establishing and directing the business unit, Alan spent several years working as the director of the Innovative Systems Design Group within the Central Research Division of ST, establishing an international research organization focused on novel applications of silicon technology with sister labs in Berkeley and Milan, Italy. During and immediately following his years in graduate school, he worked as a researcher at both AT&T Bell Labs and Intel, where he was an early pioneer in the fields of neural network computing, adiabatic computing, and intelligent silicon sensors. Prior to graduate school, he worked for several years at Hewlett-Packard as an engineer developing software for computer-aided-design of integrated circuits.

Alan attended graduate school at the UC Berkeley department of electrical engineering and computer sciences, where he focused on neural networks and analog computing and during which time he was awarded both a Robert Noyce Memorial Fellowship from Intel and a Hewlett-Packard Fellowship from HP. He holds a BSEE from Yale University and has more than 50 patents obtained while with ST, Bell Labs and Intel.

Patrick Bouju
Vice President of Worldwide Sales

Patrick Bouju is Vice President of Worldwide Sales at UPEK. In this position, Patrick oversees and drives UPEK’s worldwide direct sales representatives and distribution network.

A veteran of the semiconductor industry, Patrick has over 25 years of management experience at senior level positions around the world such as Deputy General Manager of Thomson Components in Singapore, Managing Director of Thomson Far East in Hong Kong, General Manager of Thomson Passive Components in the U.S., President of ST Microelectronics’ sales organization in Korea and Hong Kong, and President of IPC Peripherals Ltd., where he successfully restructured operations both in Singapore and the U.S.

Patrick served as well as CEO of Hagenuk Telecom Gmbh in Germany, where he had full P&L responsibility of the entire operation from design to manufacturing, including Sales and Marketing. Prior to joining UPEK, Patrick was a consultant for the TouchChip business unit of ST Microelectronics that led to UPEK’s spin off.

Robert H. Bond
Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing Operations

Robert is Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing Operations at UPEK. Robert is responsible for management of the manufacturing supply chain from wafers to finished goods, providing volume production of fingerprint sensor chipsets. Since joining the TouchChip business unit of STMicroelectronics in 1999, Robert has successfully industrialized the manufacture and test for fingerprint sensors. He has also established and qualified high volume manufacturing capacity to meet present and future demands.

Robert has 27 years experience in the semiconductor industry, during which he has focused on IC manufacturing technology and package development.

Prior to STMicroelectronics, Robert worked for the world’s largest IC assembly and test sub-contactor as Director of Advanced Manufacturing, where his work focused on cost reduction projects for very high volume products. Prior to that, he spent seven years in advanced IC package development involving initial industry development and standards for the following IC packages: TQFP, plastic BGA, CSP, and Flip Chip on laminates. Previously, Robert managed an automation project that included both IC FAB and assembly process development. Before that, Robert went on an expatriate assignment with Mostek in Dublin Ireland as Equipment Engineering Manager, where he was involved in the start-up of an engineering organization for IC assembly and final test. Robert’s semiconductor experience began in 1978 when joining Mostek Corporation working on advanced test handler systems.

He has 15+ patents and 4 published papers. Robert received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Akron, Akron Ohio, in 1973.

Robert Blau
Vice President of Development

Robert Blau is Vice President of Development at UPEK and is responsible for the company's product development and sustaining activities.

Bringing 18 years of experience in enterprise software and service provider systems, Robert has a track record of developing market leading products in a variety of categories including telecom and network infrastructure, multi-channel contact centers, document management systems, application development tools as well as voice recognition and biometric platforms.

Prior to joining UPEK, Robert served as the Vice President of Software Engineering at Nuance Communications where he was responsible for product development and sustaining operations. As strategist and architect, he led the development of the Nuance Voice Platform, an award winning platform automating telephony and mobile self-service transactions for Fortune 500 Enterprises and Service Providers. During Robert's tenure, Nuance completed initial and secondary public offerings, and grew revenues to over $57 million annually.

Prior to joining Nuance, Robert held a variety of engineering and senior management positions at Hewlett-Packard. He directed the development of HP Smart Internet Usage, an HP Open View family product that enables network operators to analyze and bill for various types of network usage models. Robert also served in various engineering capacities developing turnkey ISP infrastructure solutions enabling high speed Internet services to the home over cable modems. Robert began his career developing document management software as well as software debuggers for HP systems.

Robert is a graduate of the California State University at Chico, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Magna Cum Laude.