Board of Directors
Dr. Kyeongho "K.H." Lee
Chairman of the Board, Co-Founder
Kyeongho “K.H.” Lee, Ph.D., is a co-founder of our company and has served as our Chairman of the Board since 2000. He was the driving force behind the engineering innovations that give GCT its competitive advantage in the wireless industry, including our mobile handset and wireless multimedia SOC. Since 2002, Dr. Lee served as a member of the Board of Directors of AnaPass, Inc., a KOSDAQ-listed fabless semiconductor company that supplies advanced panel controller solutions. From 1995 to 1998, Dr. Lee served as a member of the technical staff at Silicon Image Inc., a provider of advanced, interoperable connectivity solutions for high-definition displays. As a member of Silicon Image's engineering division, Dr. Lee created and patented the technology for the PanelLink flat panel display, which was adopted as the worldwide standards known as DVI and HDMI.
Dr. Lee holds 17 U.S. patents on RF direct conversion and other RF design techniques, which laid the foundation for the development of our proprietary CMOS RF and single-chip technology.
Dr. Lee holds a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University, where he was granted the Distinguished Dissertation award for his Ph.D. thesis on CMOS RF technology.
Robert Barker
Director and Audit Committee Chairman
Robert J. Barker has served as a member of our Board of Directors since April 2011, and served as Chairman of the Audit Committee since 2013. From August 2018 to present, Mr. Barker has served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at AIStorm, Inc., a semiconductor company focused on Artificial Intelligence solutions. He has also served as the Corporate Secretary of Linear Dimensions Semiconductor, Inc. from 2016 to current. Both companies are privately held.
From October 1999 to January 2010, Mr. Barker was Vice President of Corporate Business Development at Micrel, Incorporated (Micrel), a semiconductor company focused on developing analog power integrated circuits. Mr. Barker was Vice President of Human Resources at Micrel from February 2008 to January 2010. From October 2008 to January 2009, Mr. Barker served as Interim Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Micrel.
Mr. Barker also served as Micrel's Secretary from May 2000 to May 2001 and was reappointed as Secretary in February of 2009. From April 1994 to September 1999, Mr. Barker was Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Micrel. Prior to that, Mr. Barker was Vice President of Finance and Secretary of Waferscale Integration, Inc., a fabless semiconductor manufacturer focused on non-volatile memory products. Mr. Barker also held various accounting and financial positions at Monolithic Memories and Lockheed Missiles and Space Co.
Mr. Barker holds a B.S. in Electric Engineering and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Nelson C. Chan
Director
Nelson C. Chan has served as a member of our Board of Directors since March 2024. Mr. Chan joins GCT with many years of extensive board experience, as well as expertise in corporate governance, operational insight, strategic guidance and an acute knowledge of the 5G industry. Since October 2018, he has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Synaptics and a director of Synaptics since 2007.
From December 2006 until August 2008, Mr. Chan served as the CEO of Magellan Corporation. From 1992 through 2006, Mr. Chan served in various senior management positions with SanDisk Corporation, including as Executive VP and General Manager, Consumer Business. From 1983 to 1992, Mr. Chan held marketing and engineering positions at Chips and Technologies, Signetics, and Delco Electronics. Mr. Chan is a member of the board of directors, the Audit Committee, and the Nominating and Governance Committee of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, and a member of the board of directors, the Audit Committee, and the Nominating and Governance Committee of Twist Bioscience. Mr. Chan also currently serves on the boards of directors of several private companies.
Previously, Mr. Chan was Chair of the board of directors, Chair of the Compensation Committee, member of the Audit Committee and member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of Adesto Technologies, from 2010 to June 2020, prior to its acquisition by Dialog Semiconductor plc. He was a member of the board of directors, Chair of the Compensation Committee and member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance committee of Socket Mobile, from 2016 to 2019; a member of the board of directors of Silicon Laboratories, Inc., from 2007 to 2010; and a member of the board of directors, Chair of the Audit Committee and member of the Compensation Committee of Affymetrix, from 2010 to 2016, prior to its acquisition by Thermo Fisher. He was a member of the board of directors and Chair of the board of directors from June 2013 to September 2016 of Outerwall, prior to its acquisition by Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm.
Mr. Chan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Santa Clara University.
Kukjin Chun
Director
Kukjin Chun has served as a member of our Board of Directors since 2022. He offers extensive expertise in electrical engineering, serving as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University from 1989 to 2020, and Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department as WSU from 1986 to 1989. Prior, he held several positions at Seoul National University such as Head of the department of EECS and Director of the Microsystem Technology Center.
Dr. Chun is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of Korea and a Fellow at the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom as well as a Fellow at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He has served in various positions with IEEE such as Vice-President, Member of Geographical Activity; Member of the Board of Director; and Member on several committees such as Audit, Sections Congress Organizing and MGA Award.
Among numerous awards, Dr. Chun has earned the Order of Science and Technology Merit of Korea.
Dr. Chun holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University, as well as a M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
John Schlaefer
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
John Schlaefer is our Chief Executive Officer and President, and has served on our Board of Directors since 2013. He is responsible for ensuring the strategic direction of the company, business development, and day-to-day operations. He served as Chief Operating Officer from 2006 to 2012, where he led all sales, marketing, program management and production operations at GCT. Mr. Schlaefer offers a strong background in the wireless semiconductor industry, including extensive experience in marketing, business development and operations.
From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Schlaefer served as a member of our Board of Directors. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Schlaefer was the Product Line Director for the RF Products Business Unit at National Semiconductor Corporation (National), a leading semiconductor company focused on analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, where he was responsible for National's industry leading phase-locked loop (PLL) and voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) product lines. During this time, Mr. Schlaefer also architected a successful partnership between National and GCT, resulting in the launch of PLL/VCO and PHS radio families by National. From 1994 to 2000, Mr. Schlaefer held various positions at National, including Marketing Director, RF Products Business Unit from 1999-2001, Product Line Marketing Manager, Wireless Product Business Unit from 1996 to 1999 and Marketing Manager, New Business Development, Americas Regional Business Unit, from 1994 to 1996. From 1987 to 1993, Mr. Schlaefer was a Project Engineer and Program Manager at Watkins-Johnson Company.
Mr. Schlaefer holds a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.
Hyunsoo “Hans” Shin
Director
Hyunsoo “Hans” Shin has served as a member of the Board of Directors since 2022. He offers extensive expertise in business development and management, having served as Advisor to CJ Corporation since from October 2022 to October 2024. Prior, Mr. Shin was the CEO of CJ America, supporting and guiding all the CJ affiliates in North and South America since 2020. From 2016 to 2019, Mr. Shin was the Executive Vice President, Head of Global Food Business at CJ Cheil-Jedang, where he was responsible for all profits and losses of the processed food business outside Korea. From 2013 to 2015, he served as CEO for CJ Foods in Los Angeles.
Mr. Shin served as President of Kellogg Asia from 2002 to 2009 after having served as President of Nhong Shim Kellogg from 1999 to 2002. From 1991 to 1998, he worked for Pepsi-Cola International as President (1995-1998) and Marketing Director (1992-1995) of Pepsi-Cola Korea. From 1984 to 1990, he held various positions at Hyundai Electronics Industries such as National Sales Manager, Marketing Director and Semiconductor Foundry & Assembly Sales Manager.
Mr. Shin holds a M.S. in Management from Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a B.S. in Economics from Seoul National University.
Jeff Tuder
Director
Jeff Tuder has been a member of our Board since March 2024. Mr. Tuder is the Founder and Managing Member of Tremson Capital Management, LLC (“Tremson”) since April 2015, is an Operating Partner of Atlas Merchant Capital and is also Chief Executive Officer of Concord Acquisition Corp II and Chief Financial Officer of Digital and Space Asset Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: DAAQ and SAAQ, respectively). Prior to founding Tremson, he held investment roles at Fortress Investment Group, JHL Capital Group, KSA Capital Management and CapitalSource Finance.
Mr. Tuder began his career at Nassau Capital and ABS Capital Partners. Mr. Tuder currently serves on the boards of directors of Inseego Corp (NASDAQ: INSG) where he is Chairman of the Board and Audit Committee, Hyperliquid Securities, Inc. (NASDAQ: PURR), IQM Quantum Computers (NASDAQ: IQMX) where he is Chairman of the Audit Committee, as well as DAAQ. Mr. Tuder previously served on the board of directors of a number of other public and private companies.
Mr. Tuder received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College.