Bertrand Cambou Chairman and CEO of Crocus

Crocus Technology, developer of Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM), announced the appointment of Dr. Bertrand F. Cambou as chief executive officer and chairman of the company’s board of directors, effective immediately.

Cambou brings to Crocus a successful track record of more than 29 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. His business and operational expertise will be instrumental in promoting the company’s growth as it brings MRAM products and technologies to the marketplace. Coincident with Cambou’s appointment, the company announced that it had received an 8 million euro investment from its leading investors.

 Most recently, Cambou served as president of Silicon Storage Technology, Inc., which was acquired in April 2010 by Microchip Technology, Inc. In previous roles, he served as president and chief executive officer of Spansion Inc., senior vice president of AMD’s memory group, and chief operating officer at Gemplus International S.A. He also held various senior level positions at Motorola, Inc., including senior vice president and general manager of the Computing and Networking Systems Group and chief technical officer of the Semiconductor Product Group. Cambou holds a doctorate in physics and electrical engineering from Paris XI University where his dissertation focused on experimental magnetic memories. He also holds an engineering degree from SUPELEC in Paris, France, and a master’s degree in physics from Toulouse University.

Lead investor and Crocus chairman since 2006, Eric Buatois of Sofinnova stated: "I am pleased to have such a well regarded executive from the semiconductor memory business assuming leadership of this company and board. Crocus has the foundation to be the new leader of next-generation non-volatile memory, and with Dr. Cambou’s contribution, I am confident the company is on the path to success."

"I am very impressed with the Crocus board of directors and executive team," said Dr. Cambou. "Working closely with this team, we will advance the company to full commercialization and production of its patented TAS (Thermal Assisted Switching) technology as applied to both conventional MRAM and STT (Spin Transfer Torque) MRAM."

The company also disclosed that it has secured a new round of financing with lead investors. The 8 million euro investment will be used to complete the production transfer of its 130nm MRAM technology to manufacturing partner Tower Semiconductor and for continued product development. Investors participating in this financing include AGF Private Equity, CDC Innovation, CEA Investissement, Nanodimension, Sofinnova Ventures, and Ventech.