T. J. Rodgers | |
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.jpg) 2007 portait | |
| Born | Thurman John Rodgers (1948-03-15)March 15, 1948 (age 77) Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.[1] |
| Alma mater | Dartmouth College, 1970B.A. Stanford University, 1973M.A. 1975Ph.D. |
| Occupation(s) | Scientist and entrepreneur |
| Spouse | Valeta Massey[1] |
Thurman John "T. J."Rodgers (born March 15, 1948)[1] is an American billionaire scientist and entrepreneur. He is the founder ofCypress Semiconductor and holds patents ranging from semiconductors to energy to winemaking. Rodgers is known for his public relations acumen, brash personality, and strong advocacy oflaissez-fairecapitalism. He stepped down as Cypress CEO in April 2016 and Director in August 2016 after serving for 34 years.[2]
Thurman John Rodgers was born on March 15, 1948, inOshkosh, Wisconsin. He goes back to nearbyGreen Bay, Wisconsin several times a year to attendGreen Bay Packers football games.[3] His father was a car salesman and worked forGeneral Motors and his mother was a school teacher, with amaster's degree inradio electronics. He was aSloan scholar atDartmouth College and played on theDartmouth Big Green football team.[4] In 1970 he received hisbachelor's degree, graduating assalutatorian with majors in chemistry and physics.[5] He received hismaster's degree (1973) andPh.D. (1975) inelectrical engineering fromStanford University. While pursuing his Ph.D. degree, Rodgers invented theVMOS process technology, which he later licensed to American Microsystems, Inc. He founded Cypress Semiconductor in 1982. He was awarded anhonorary doctorate from theUniversidad Francisco Marroquín inGuatemala City.
After finishing a doctorate at Stanford, he turned down a job offer fromIntel, saying that CEOAndrew S. Grove was unlikely to give him the freedom to pursue his own projects.[4] Instead Rodgers accepted a job atAmerican Microsystems, Inc. (AMI), where he continued development of VMOS, but this project was a failure.
Rodgers founded Cypress Semiconductor in 1982 and served as founding CEO.[6] Cypress is a semiconductor design and manufacturing company, producingPSoCs,microcontroller,IoT, wireless andUSB,PMICs, memory and sensor chips.[7] As CEO, Rodgers was responsible for more than 30 acquisitions,[8] including SunPower and the IoT portfolio ofBroadcom Corporation.[6] Cypress also benefited from its business withApple Inc., as its PSoC was behind theiPod click wheel.[9] He stepped down as CEO in April 2016.[6] In 2015, Cypress had more than 6,000 employees and revenues of US$1.6 billion. The company had about 7,000 issued patents and about 1,200 additional patent applications on record.[10]
In 2017 Rodgers conducted a successfulproxy fight against Cypress. He raised concerns pertaining todirector compensation,[11] state-sponsored foreign competition[12] as well as inherentconflicts of interest.[13] After filing a lawsuit against the company in April 2017, Rodgers sought to remove executive chairmanRay Bingham[14][15] andÉric Benhamou from the Cypress board and nominated Dan McCranie and Camillo Martino as directors.[16] Rodgers argued that Bingham's role as a co-founder of Canyon Bridge,[17] a private equity fund supported by theGovernment of China,[13] constituted a clear conflict of interest as acquisition targets for both companies overlapped.[17] Bingham was forced to resign from the Cypress board in early June 2017 and both of Rodgers' nominees won the subsequent 2017 shareholder election against Benhamou.[16]
Rodgers early recognized the value[18] of high efficiencysolar cells produced bySunPower. As SunPower faced financial problems in 2001, Rodgers[19] tried to convince the Cypress board[18] to buy the solar cell producer.[20] Rodgers and SunPowerCEORichard Swanson had met in the 70s atStanford University. But as the Cypress board of directors was not interested in saving the struggling company Rodgers wrote a check himself for $750,000.[19] About a year later Rodgers had convinced the board to invest $9 million in SunPower and a few months later Cypress bought a majority stake in SunPower.[18] In 2005 SunPower went public[20] and reached a market capitalization of $10.4 billion in 2007.[18] From May 2002 to May 2011, Rodgers served as chairman of SunPower.[21]
In 2024 SunPower declared bankruptcy and TJ Rodger's company Complete Solar entered into a stalking horse bid on particular assets of the SunPower company including the company Name and stock ticker. In 2025 the company has branded back to SunPower where TJ serves as chairman of the board and CEO.
In January 2017, Rodgers invested US$5 million inEnphase Energy,[22] arenewable energy firm specialized inenergy management and the production ofsolar micro-inverters, which transform solar energy toalternating current for theelectrical grid.[23] In addition to his investment, Rodgers joined Enphase's board of directors.[24]
Rodgers also served as director of theSemiconductor Industry Association.[25]
After successfully launching a petition drive to get his name on the ballot, Rodgers won the alumnitrustee election of Dartmouth College in 2004,[26] becoming the first successful petition candidate since 1980.[27] He won with a comfortable margin.[28] As trustee, Rodgers’ major concerns were removing the College's speech code,[27] increasing the budget for teacher salaries and strengthening Dartmouth's focus on undergraduate education.[29] Following the campaign of Rodgers, three additional independent trustees were elected in 2005 and 2007.[30] Rodgers was reelected as trustee in 2009.[27]
Rodgers began winemaking in 1996 on a one-acrevineyard surrounding his house inWoodside. Later he bought two additional vineyards and, along with his wife Valeta, Rodgers established the winery Clos de la Tech in theSanta Cruz Mountains ofSilicon Valley. Clos de la Tech uses oldFrench winemaking techniques ofDomaine de la Romanée-Conti[31] to make fivePinot Noir wines. This includes stomping the grapes with feet andsiphoning the wine by hand.[32] Also, no mechanized pumps are used.[33] Clos de la Tech combines these old techniques with high tech monitoring[34] and measures to optimize the conditions for the crops and to handle grapes and wine as gently as possible.[32] Clos de la Tech's Pinot Noirs have been rated up to 96 points byWine Enthusiast Magazine.[35] As winemaker, Rodgers invented a patented wine press and computer monitoredfermenters.[31] He also designed and built the first wireless wine fermentation network, comprising 152 fermenters, and donated the system worth US$3.5 million to theUC Davis winery.[36]
In 1996, Rodgers received a form letter from Sister Doris Gormley, the Director of CorporateSocial Responsibility forThe Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, encouraging him to hire women and minorities on the Cypress board. He replied with a long letter defending his hiring practices and philosophy. This exchange between Rodgers and Gormley drew considerable media attention.[37][38] In 1999,[39] he wrote an editorial in theSan Jose Mercury News denouncingJesse Jackson's attack[40] on Cypress Semiconductor on what Jackson claimed was discriminatory hiring practices.[41]
Rodgers is an avidjogger andwine enthusiast. He is a supporter of several charities, includingSecond Harvest of Silicon Valley, and served as a trustee on theDartmouth College Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2012.[42] He is the husband of Valeta Massey.[43]
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1975
US3878552 – Bipolar Integrated Circuit and Method[46]
US3924265 – Low capacitance V groove MOS NOR gate and method of manufacture[47]
1976
US3975221 – Low capacitance V groove MOS NOR gate and method of manufacture[48]
1980
US4222063 – VMOS Floating gate memory with breakdown voltage loweringregion[49]
US4222062 – VMOS Floating gate memory device[50]
1981
CA1115426 – U-groove mos device[51]
1988
US5835401 – DRAM with hidden refresh[52]
US4764248 – Rapid thermal nitridized oxide locos process[53]
1999
US5977638 – Edge metal for interconnect layers[54]
2000
US6131140 – Integrated cache memory with system control logic and adaptation of RAM bus to a cache pinout[55]
2001
US6185126 – Self-initializing RAM-based programmable device[56]
2004
US6835616 – Method of forming a floating metal structure in an integratedcircuit[57]
US6730545 – Method of performing back-end manufacturing of an integrated circuit device[58]
US2004076712 – Fermentation tank wine press[59]
2005
US6903002 – Low-k dielectric layer with air gaps[60]
US6847218 – Probe card with an adapter layer for testing integrated circuits[61]
2006
US7045387 – Method of performing back-end manufacturing of an integrated circuit[62]
2007
US7227804 – Current source architecture for memory device standby current reduction[63]
2008
US2008315847 – Programmable floating gate reference[64]
US2008102160 – Wine-making press[65]
2009
US7507944 – Non-planar packaging of image sensor[66]
2017
US9624094 – Hydrogen barriers in a copper interconnect process[67]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)… Thank you for your letter criticizing the lack of racial and gender diversity of Cypress's Board of Directors. I received the same letter from you last year. I will reiterate the management arguments opposing your position. Then I will provide the philosophical basis behind our rejection of the operating principles espoused in your letter, which we believe to be not only unsound, but even immoral, by a definition of that term I will present.
It's insulting that Jesse Jackson flies into the Silicon Valley, which I revere as one of the best places on earth and one of the most unprejudiced places on earth, and tells us we're prejudiced, he is ignorant about the situation here in the Silicon Valley.
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