History 2000: Return of Tom Mitchell to Storage Industry

The controversial David T. (Tom) Mitchell, who never tired of rubbing elbows in the foremost circles of the storage industry, first at Seagate and then at Conner Peripherals, before a disastrous spell at JTS, is now the founder and CEO of a new company called Fabrinet, headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

The firm is a contract electronics manufacturer that took off with the acquisition of a facility in Chokchai, Thailand let go by Seagate.

More specifically, the plant in question produces head-stack assemblies, established by Seagate in 1997 and employing 3,329 people in 1999. Located 3 miles north of Bangkok International Airport, the 200,000 square foot facility now boasts 1,500 people and features a 65,000 square foot clean room. Guess who is Fabrinet’s main customer? Yes, Seagate.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 153 on October 2000 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.