2-3 December 2025
Tokyo
Strategic Advisor, Board Member, Former C-Suite Executive
A Semiconductor industry veteran with over three decades of experience in semiconductor manufacturing and capital equipment companies, holding various engineering and leadership positions at Texas Instruments, Micron Technology and KLA Corporation. Frequent keynote speaker at industry events and featured in several technical publications, awarded with VLSI Semiconductor All Star in 2020. Oreste is currently Senior Advisor at KLA, imec, KronosAI, AlixPartners, and ISIG and he serves the board of Aion Silicon and Synergie CAD group as independent director. Oreste earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University La Sapienza in Rome, Italy
EVP, Senior Fellow, Global Applications and Business Development
Education:
Experience:
Habib Hichri is an Executive Vice President, Senior Fellow Global Applications and Business Development at Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Corporation USA. Prior to joining AFT USA, Habib was Director of Applications Engineering at SUSS MicroTec Photonics Systems USA where he provided patterning solutions for advanced semiconductors packaging customers. Before joining SUSS MicroTec, Habib spent about 12 years with IBM Semiconductors Research and Development Center (IBM SRDC) in East Fishkill, NY where he worked as lead process integration engineer for microprocessor (IBM), games and communications chips. He later was promoted to management positions within IBM on process development in the front end of line area for microprocessor fabrication. Habib holds over 40 U.S. patents and authored over 75 publications and presentations and a book chapter in “Advances in Embedded and Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging Technologies” (Wiley – IEEE) first Edition. Habib received Master and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Claude Bernard University at Lyon, France, and an MBA degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Habib is the chair of the Orange County California IEEE/Electronic Packaging Society (EPS) Chapter. He is also a member of the technical committees of Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), International Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging Society (IMAPS). He was the general chair of IMPAS 2020. Habib is IMAPS Society Fellow. He is currently member of the IMAPS executive council. Habib is Board member of International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) since April 2024 and International Semiconductor Industry Group (ISIG) since April 2025.
Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Co., Inc. (AFT) is a subsidiary of the Ajinomoto Group responsible for the fine chemicals division. AFT (est. 1942) continues to deliver materials that can suit a wide range of customer needs in our four main strengths: molecular design, formulation, process development, and solutions. Our customers have commended us for our electronic materials. We have grown to play a major part in their value chains for electronics, automotive, and a variety of other products. We continue to refine our ability in materials science through research and development to continue creating value with our customers. We strive to provide the highest quality products, services, and information for our customers. Beyond our Ajinomoto Build-up film®, we’ve expanded our material portfolio to include molding, photo dielectric, magnetic, and optoelectronics. To maintain our leadership in our specified industry, we are devoted to providing state-of-the-art material, technology know-how, and customer service.
Please visit the website: Product information – Ajinomoto Fine-Techno Co.,Inc. (aft-website.com)
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Naveed Sherwani is a world-renowned semiconductor expert, entrepreneur, and leader in chip design. He holds a PhD in computer engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his career spans academia, industry leadership, and entrepreneurship. Early in his career, he served as a professor at Western Michigan University before joining Intel in 1994, where he focused on design automation for complex chips.
Dr. Sherwani has founded or co-founded numerous influential semiconductor companies, including Open-Silicon, Brite Semiconductor, PeerNova, and Rapid Silicon. His ventures have been instrumental in advancing semiconductor technology, raising over $1 billion in funding across these projects. A key figure in the RISC-V movement, he has led the growth of companies like SiFive and SemiFive, contributing to the global rise of RISC-V technology.
In addition to his leadership roles in the private sector, Dr. Sherwani is the Chairman of the National Semiconductor Hub of the Kingdom, where he works on fostering innovation and semiconductor advancements at a national level. He continues to influence the global semiconductor landscape through his contributions to the RISC-V ecosystem and domain-specific FPGA innovations at Rapid Silicon.
Dr. Sherwani has authored multiple textbooks, including the widely-used “Algorithms for VLSI Physical Design Automation,” and has published over 125 technical papers. His leadership in both academia and the industry has earned him numerous accolades, including the Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam awarded by the President of Pakistan in 2019.
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