Executive
Leadership
Phu Hoang
Founder & CEO
Phu Hoang leads Virtium by instilling core values of integrity, customer focus, quality, accountability, and teamwork. Phu is passionate about improving the world we live in and sharing that sensibility with customers, vendors, employees, and the community. His leadership philosophy focuses on enhancing the lives of others, creating lasting relationships, and offering value-added partnering resources. He is committed to sustainable and profitable business practices and believes in balancing family and career. Phu’s management and entrepreneurial background comes from seven years with Vistage International, a leading CEO training organization. He earned his MBA from Northern Illinois University and has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada. He also currently holds two U.S. patents. In 2008 and 2014, Phu won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in Orange County, California. In addition, in 2013, Phu was selected as a winner of the Orange County Business Journal’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards. Phu is also the founder of Savice, a non-profit education foundation established to enable better futures for underprivileged children through educational assistance in rural Vietnam. Phu’s awards include OC Business Journal’s “Innovator of the Year, 2017” and “Excellence in Entrepreneurship, 2013” – as well as, Ernst Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year, 2014”.
Chinh Nguyen
Founder & COO
Chinh Nguyen directs day-to-day operations as well as the overall technology advancements and supply chain needed to keep Virtium building the best storage and memory innovations, on budget and on time.
Chinh’s background includes five years with Vistage International, a leading CEO training organization. Chinh earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and is an inventor – holding several U.S. patents. Chinh is also an active member of the industry standards group JEDEC and contributes leadership and expertise in developing new embedded industry standards and form factors.
As director of Savice, a non-profit education foundation, Chinh is devoted to helping underprivileged children improve their lives with greater access to educational resources in rural Vietnam.
Thomas Magee
CFO
Thomas Magee leads the finance team, ensuring strong and stable financial performance and structure to support Virtium’s business. He ensures the company maintains its strong values and its keen focus on performance to compliment the well-developed controls environment.
Tom has more than 25 years of executive, operational, and financial management experience with leading organizations. He has served as VP Finance, CFO, or a business unit leader for a number of technology and professional service firms:
International Rectifier (NYSE: IRF), a global manufacturer of power semiconductors
EY, where he was an executive in the Center for Strategic Transactions in Palo Alto and the San Jose accounting organization
Accenture Strategic Services, a global management consultancy, where he advised clients on operational and strategic matters
ARCO (British Petroleum), the global refining and marketing firm
Tom received his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University with a B.S. in Business Economics.
Gary Drossel
CTO
Gary Drossel leads Virtium’s product strategy. He ensures the company’s product roadmap is strategically maintained to meet the dynamic storage and memory requirements of Virtium’s customers while supporting the longest possible product lifecycles.
Gary has more than 25 years of experience in embedded computing and solid-state drive technology and holds 10 SSD-related U.S. patents. Prior to joining Virtium, Drossel was vice president of product planning at SiliconSystems, now the Solid State Storage Business Unit of Western Digital. He has held various positions in product management, engineering, and technical marketing with STEC, Pro-Log, and Parker Hannifin. Drossel earned his degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
Dave Beasley
EVP of WW Sales & Marketing
Michael Nilsson
SVP of Business Development
Michael Nilsson is responsible for business development for the company’s embedded SSD and industrial memory module solutions.
Nilsson brings more than 20 years of successful leadership and technology industry management experience to Virtium. His broad worldwide, multi-cultural knowledge has made him a recognized strategic business innovator and tactical director. Most recently, Nilsson led the sales team at sTec through a period of sustained growth and profitability. Before his tenure at sTec, he held senior sales management positions at NxtWave Communications and Fujitsu. Nilsson is a graduate of Stanford University.
Shane Mortazavi
VP of Operations
Shane Mortazavi has more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing operations and supply chain management, in profit-and-loss responsibility. He has served in the electronics, commercial, aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, and telecommunications industries. He most recently held the position of vice president of global operations at Emcore, Inc., where he was responsible for global manufacturing, supply chain and logistics. Mortazavi previously served as vice president of operations at sTec, Inc., a pioneer in enterprise-class SSDs and memory products that was acquired by Western Digital. Prior to sTec, he held operations-management positions at General Monitors and at Thomas & Betts Corp.
He holds B.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (with honors distinction) and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Shane also received a professional designation in IT and Systems Analysis from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is CPIM-certified by the American Production and Inventory Control Society.
Ahmed Salem
VP of Engineering
