Industry leaders hail SEMI's retiring Bill Reed

Electronic News, March 25, 1996

Mountain View, Calif.--Industry leaders hailed the contributions of William H. Reed to Semiconductor Equipment & Materials International (SEMI), the group he has led for 13 years. Mr. Reed announced earlier this month he will retire at the end of the year (EN, People in the News, March 18).

James C. Morgan, chairman of Applied Materials and a former chairman of SEMI's board of directors, praised Mr. Reed for his leadership through a time of rapid growth for the association and the industry it serves. "In his 13 years as head of SEMI, Bill has developed it into what I consider the first truly global trade association, providing assistance in virtually every part of the globe where equipment and materials companies do business. All of us in the industry are indebted to him for his contributions."

Kenneth Levy, chairman/CEO of KLA Instruments and also a former SEMI chairman, said: "I cannot think of anyone who has made a greater contribution to our industry than Bill Reed. As the chief spokesperson for the semiconductor industry, he has built an organization that is truly international and has played an important role in our globalization and the reduction of international trade friction."

Mr. Reed, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Tufts University in Boston, spent the earlier part of his career in sales and marketing at various companies. Prior to joining SEMI, he was director of sales and marketing at Monsanto Electronic Materials Co. (now MEMC Electronic Materials) in St. Peters, Mo.

Mr. Reed will be succeeded as president of SEMI by Stanley T. Myers, who will step down Aug. 31 as president and CEO of Siltec Silicon to begin a transition period of working with Mr. Reed for four months at SEMI headquarters here.

After 18 years with Monsanto, including a period at MEMC, the silicon wafer business, Mr. Myers has been with Siltec since 1979. Mr. Myers was elected president and CEO of the company in October, 1985. In December, 1986, Mr. Myers completed negotiation for the acquisition of Siltec by three Mitsubishi Group companies.

Since the acquisition, Mr. Myers has continued to serve as president/CEO while Siltec has increased its revenue seven-fold and returned to profitability.

Mr. Myers is a past chairman of the board of directors of SEMI, current chairman of Cybeq Systems, a director of Haskel International and serves on local community boards in Oregon.

"Stan has contributed greatly to the success of our company," Mr. Shigeru Masuda, Siltec's chairman of the board, said. "He created a strong company culture for success, and Siltec has experienced tremendous growth under his leadership. His vision, integrity and dedication to employees has built a strong foundation that Siltec will build on in the future."

Since 1983, Mr. Reed has managed the growth of SEMI from an 18-employee, one-office operation into an international trade association that now serves 1,600 member companies involved in the $55 billion semiconductor and flat panel display equipment and materials markets. In addition to its Mountain View headquarters, SEMI has nine satellite offices located in Austin, Hsinchu, Brussels, Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Boston and Washington, D.C.

It annually sponsors eight Semicon trade shows worldwide, various technical and economic conferences and trade missions to emerging markets. Other programs Mr. Reed helped to develop during his tenure include international manufacturing standards, market statistics and government relations.