Masayoshi Son
Chairman of the Board
Masayoshi Son is the Founder, Representative Director, Corporate Officer, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG), a strategic investment holding company that invests in breakthrough technologies to create a more connected, empowered and joyful world. Founded in 1981 initially as a PC software distribution business, SBG and its portfolio of companies have expanded to cover a range of technologies, including advanced telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, and IoT.
Masa has overseen investments in some of the world’s fastest-growing technology companies. In 2016, SBG acquired Arm, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company. Since 2017, SBG has been investing as a “Vision Capitalist” to help extraordinary entrepreneurs transform industries and shape new ones with the power of AI through the SoftBank Vision Funds.
In addition to his responsibilities at SBG, Masa is Board Director, Founder, of SoftBank Corp., (the domestic Japanese telecommunications subsidiary of SBG) and Chairman and Director of Arm.
Rene Haas
Board Member
Rene was appointed Chief Executive Officer and to the Arm Board in February 2022. Prior to being appointed CEO, Rene was President of Arm’s IP Product Groups (IPG) from January 2017. Under his leadership, Rene transformed IPG to focus on key solutions for vertical markets with a more diversified product portfolio and increased investment in the Arm software ecosystem. In addition to his role as CEO, Rene also sits on the board of Arm China.
Rene joined Arm in October 2013 as Vice President of Strategic Alliances and two years later was named appointed to the Executive Committee and named Arm’s Chief Commercial Officer in charge of global sales and marketing.
Before joining Arm, Rene held several applications management, applications engineering and product engineering roles, including seven years at NVIDIA as vice president and general manager of its computing products business. Prior to NVIDIA, Rene held executive roles at Scintera Networks and Tensilica.
Rene is based in Silicon Valley, U.S., he also spends significant time in the major technology centers of the UK, Europe and APAC.
Rene earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Clarkson University and is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program.
Karen Dykstra
Board Member
Karen Dykstra previously served as Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, and as Chief Financial Officer, of AOL, Inc., a web portal and online service provider. Prior to joining AOL, Inc., Ms. Dykstra was a Partner of Plainfield Asset Management LLC (“Plainfield”), where she served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Plainfield Direct LLC, Plainfield’s business development company, and was also a director. Previously, she spent over 25 years with Automatic Data Processing, Inc., a provider of human capital management solutions to employers, serving most recently as Chief Financial Officer, and prior thereto as Vice President – Finance, Corporate Controller, and in other capacities. Karen is a director of VMware, Inc. and Gartner Inc., and former director of Crane Co., AOL, Inc. and Boston Properties, Inc.
Jeff Sine
Board Member
Jeff Sine is the Co-Founder and Partner of The Raine Group, a global merchant bank focused on technology, media, and communications. Prior to founding Raine, he served as Vice Chairman and Global Head of Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking at UBS Investment Bank, was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, and was an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and London. Jeff currently serves on the boards of many Raine portfolio companies and subsidiaries. He also serves on the boards of National Public Radio (NPR) (Vice-Chair), ITHAKA, Educational Testing Service (ETS) (Chair), American University and The Manhattan Theatre Club.
Paul Jacobs
Board Member
Paul E. Jacobs, Ph.D. is the CEO of Globalstar Inc., a satellite operator and service provider. He is also the chairman of Virewirx, formerly known as XCOM Labs, which he founded in 2018 to develop high-performance wireless technologies and applications. Prior to XCOM, Dr. Jacobs served as CEO and executive chairman of Qualcomm Inc., where he spearheaded the company’s efforts to develop and commercialize fundamental mobile technology breakthroughs that fueled the wireless internet and smartphone revolutions. During his tenure as CEO, Qualcomm’s revenue quadrupled, and its market capitalization doubled. Dr. Jacobs is a prolific inventor with over 80 U.S. patents granted or pending in the field of wireless technology and devices.
Dr. Jacobs currently serves as director of Globalstar Inc, Dropbox, Inc. and FIRST. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, M.S. in Electrical Engineering, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. He founded Berkeley’s Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation. Dr. Jacobs is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Rosemary Schooler
Board Member
Rosemary Schooler is a proven leader with over 30 years of experience in the global technology industry. She most recently served as corporate vice president and general manager of Data Center and AI Sales for Intel Corporation. During her 33-year career at Intel, Ms. Schooler managed and oversaw sales and corporate strategy for the company’s IoT business. She also held vice president and general manager positions at a number of Intel start-up initiatives in the embedded/IoT, networking and storage businesses, including PnL, architecture, product development and customer success efforts. In her networking role, Ms. Schooler led industry transforming initiatives including Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and technologies such as Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK).
Ms. Schooler has supported industry efforts including ATIS and TIA as well as non-profits including the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT). She was previously an independent director for Cloudera and currently serves on the board for Zurn Water Solutions. Ms. Schooler earned a BS in ceramic science and engineering from Penn State University.
Ron Fisher
Board Member
Ron Fisher is a Senior Advisor at SoftBank Investment Advisors. Ron joined SoftBank in the US in 1995 and was the founder and Managing Partner of SoftBank Capital. Ron joined the Board of SoftBank Group in 1997 and was Vice Chairman from 2017 - 2022. Ron has more than 40 years of experience of working with high-growth and turnaround technology companies. Prior to joining SoftBank, Ron was the CEO of Phoenix Technologies Ltd., the leading developer and marketer of system software products for personal computers, from 1990 to 1995. Ron joined Phoenix from Interactive Systems Corporation, a UNIX software company that was purchased by the Eastman Kodak Company in 1988. At Interactive Systems he served for five years as President, initially as COO and then CEO. Ron earned an MBA from Columbia University, New York, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Young Sohn
Board Member
Young Sohn is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose passion is building businesses and fostering emerging technologies that have the potential to transform the world for the better. Young is the chairman of the Board of HARMAN, senior advisor at Samsung Electronics, member of the Board of Directors at Cadence and founding managing partner of Walden Catalyst. Recently, Mr. Sohn served as corporate president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics, where he led strategy for global innovation, investment, new business creation, and led the company's $8 billion acquisition of HARMAN International.
Prior to joining Samsung, Mr. Sohn worked in Silicon Valley building and scaling businesses in core technologies including semiconductors and storage where he served as chief executive of Oak Technologies, Avago (then known as Agilent), and Inphi. In addition, under his leadership as CEO or board member, he took PLX Technologies, Synnex Technologies, and Inphi public. Mr. Sohn co-founded the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), the world's largest startup competition for entrepreneurs addressing global challenges.
Mr. Sohn holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MS from the MIT Sloan School of Management.