Smartron appoints Sanjay Jha to the Board of Directors

Smartron has appointed Dr Sanjay Jha to the board of directors effective immediately. Sanjay is among America’s top technology executives and one of the top ten Indian-origin CEOs “ruling” the global technology industry. Besides being an investor himself, Sanjay will be an independent director with Smartron. With his wealth of experience and knowledge in semiconductor and mobile industries, he will serve as a mentor and strategic advisor to strengthen Smartron’s operational excellence and global expansion road map.

Sanjay is currently the Chief Executive Officer of GlobalFoundries, world’s second-largest semiconductor manufacturing company, which he joined in 2014. He has a successful track record of senior executive experience as the CEO and Chairman of Motorola Mobility and EVP and Chief Operating Officer at Qualcomm.

Mahesh Lingareddy, Founder & Chairman, stated, “With Sanjay’s broad industry experience and hugely successful track record, we are confident of accelerated growth of Smartron and achieve its vision of building India’s first global OEM brand that can rival global brands. With him being on the board of Smartron, we continue our strong relationship with Sanjay, as earlier he was the Chairman of Soft Machines Inc., a fabless semiconductor company developing innovative CPUs and SoCs co-founded by me. Together, we built and led Soft Machines Inc. a successful acquisition by a large semiconductor company for well over US$300 million.”

On his joining the Board of Directors with Smartron, Sanjay Jha said, “I am very excited by Smartron’s founding vision and roadmap and its emphasis on seamless experiences through tronx IoT platform. There are huge opportunities Smartron can address in consumer, enterprise, industrial and infrastructure markets with tight integration of devices, sensors, and services and by innovating and investing in disruptive IoT and AI technologies. Smartron has the right vision, passionate team, and a strong foundation. I am looking forward to helping homegrown Smartron into a leading global brand.”

Prior to GlobalFoundries, Sanjay was the CEO & Chairman of Motorola Mobility, which comprised Mobile Devices, Home Businesses and Motorola Mobility Ventures. It was under his leadership that Google acquired Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion in 2012.

Sanjay was with Qualcomm for over 14 years, and in 2006 he became their Executive Vice- President and Chief Operating Officer. Earlier, he had served as the President of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies and also led the formation of Qualcomm Technologies & Ventures.

A Ph.D. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Strathclyde University, Scotland, Sanjay has also led design and engineering role with Brooktree Corporation in San Diego, and GEC Hirst Research Centre in London.