Executive Team
MICHAEL DE NIL
CEO, Co-Founder & Board Member
Michael is a pioneer of modern Wi-Fi chips with an extensive background in digital chip design and low-power digital architectures. Prior to founding Morse Micro, Michael worked for Imec and Broadcom as wireless chip designer, revolutionizing connectivity of modern mobile phones.
In 2016 he seized an opportunity to change the game with the rise of IoT and the inception of a new Wi-Fi standard, IEEE802.11ah and founded Morse Micro, where he has since raised 200M in funding and commercialized the first record breaking Wi-Fi HaLow SoC that is about to power a new wave of IoT devices.
MARIN PEPLINSKI
Chief People Officer
Marin has spent her career working at the intersection of people and technology. Her passion and experience lie in building and scaling successful deep technology companies.
With a Masters of Organizational Psychology, Marin builds high-performing teams. Marin led Morse Micro’s growth from a small start-up in an incubation hub to an internationally recognised semiconductor player with one of the biggest Wi-Fi chip teams in the world. Marin is the champion of Morse Micro’s inclusive and positive culture.
ANDREW TERRY
CTO, Co-Founder & Board Member
Andrew (Andy) Terry played a key role in the design of modern Wi-Fi radios in mixed-signal integrated circuits and was recognized with the President’s award at Broadcom for pioneering on-chip signal integrity work on the radios of landmark Wi-Fi chips.
Andy’s radio mastery underpins key functionalities of MM6108, the first record-breaking Wi-Fi HaLow SoC. As Morse Micro’s CTO Andy leads the engineering teams to successfully design world-leading Wi-Fi chips.
SHRINATH KESKAR
VP Global Sales and Business Development
Shrinath, with over three decades of experience, has made significant contributions across the semiconductor industry in both engineering and business functions. His journey spans large public corporations (Motorola, SUN Microsystems) and nimble Silicon Valley start-ups. Notably, he played a pivotal role at Ikanos Communications (IPO 2005), contributing to the development of six generations of x-DSL chipsets. Later, at Quantenna Communications, his contributions on the business side helped the company go public in 2017 on NSE, USA and followed by an acquisition by ON Semiconductor in 2019.
LENNY TERRITO
VP Global Sales Operations
Lenny is an accomplished leader with over two decades of experience in sales, revenue operations, and business development within technical environments. Currently the VP of Global Sales Operations at Morse Micro, he excels in managing distributor and external sales rep engagements, driving strategic projects, and establishing process and system automation for the sales organization. Previously, at Qualcomm, Lenny held several leadership roles including VP of Global Business Development, VP of M&A Integration, and VP of Global Sales Operations, where he accelerated business growth in new channels, led multi-billion dollar integration projects, and optimized lead to cash operations during his tenure. His career is marked by strategic thinking, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
YOSHIKAZU OISHI
VP, Country Manager for Japan
Yoshikazu Oishi has over 17 years of experience in the global semiconductor industry, bringing a strong background in sales, people management, and business development to his role at Morse Micro. He leads efforts to drive growth and expand the company’s presence in Japan’s dynamic market. Previously, as Vice President and President of Richtek Japan Inc., Yoshikazu oversaw strategic sales operations across Japan and the Southeast Asia Pacific region. His expertise in managing high-performing teams and fostering successful partnerships with OEMs, distributors, and contract manufacturers will play a key role in aligning Morse Micro’s operations with its global strategy and delivering exceptional value to customers in the region.
BLAKE HU
VP and Country Manager of Greater China and Southeast Asia
Blake Hu is the VP and Country Manager of Greater China and Southeast Asia at Morse Micro. With extensive experience in business developments and sales, Blake previously served as Vice President of APAC Sales at Sequans Communication. He has also held significant roles at Quantenna Communications and Intel, overseeing business developments and sales strategies, where he was instrumental in increasing market share and growing worldwide revenue, and had contributed to the success of two start-ups growing into IPO. At Morse Micro, Blake is set to play a key role in expanding market presence, fostering strategic partnerships, driving sales breakthrough and financial performance to support the company’s long-term vision.
MAGGIE GASTON
Head of Communications
Maggie is an experienced communicator with extensive experience working with start-ups and unicorns across the deep-tech space in Australia and the UK. She brings fresh perspectives from across the technology industry including semiconductors, cybersecurity and data analytics/AI.
JING-JING LIANG
Head of Operations
Jing Jing is an expert in fabless semiconductor Supply Chain Management and a Business Operations expert, gaining over 23 years experience at Marvell Technology Inc. Lark Health Technologies and QST Corporation. Jing Jing established QST Solutions, which developed successful rapidly growing IMU sensor chips. At Lark Health, Jing Jing created an international product development and delivery system to provide smart device tools for health monitoring.
BOB LUTZE
VP Quality & Reliability
Bob is an expert in semiconductor QA. He was VP of Quality at Broadcom, where he grew the company into a highly functional organization exceeding all market quality metrics across all major industry segments. Bob has over 30 years experience including Hewlett Packard, Honeywell Solid State Electronics Center, Brooktree Semiconductor, MetaSoft and Broadcom Corporation.
KISHORE CHIKKAM
VP Systems & Software
Kishore has two decades of experience in Systems Design for Wireless LAN Chips. Before joining Morse Micro, Kishore worked for large semiconductor companies, including Athena Semiconductors, LifeSignals, Broadcom. Kishore leads the systems and software teams from design to deployment in the field to ensure the world-leading performance of Morse Micro chips.
JULIUS BAXTER
VP of ASIC Engineering
Julius (Jules) joined Morse in 2018 to work on the digital systems and has since been involved in all things ASIC-design at the company, contributing to design, verification, tooling and chip bringup, rising to the rank of VP of ASIC Engineering.
He was instrumental in finessing the RISC-V processor system in MM6108 and he now leads the teams working on the Company’s second and third generation products, helping make Morse Micro a world leader in its field. His prior experience includes Broadcom and Qualcomm/CSR.
CHAD O’NEILL
VP of Applications
Chad has over 22 years of experience in the Wi-Fi industry working in all aspects of chip development from silicon to the cloud and product security. Chad honed his skills at Radiata, Cisco, G2 Microsystems, Broadcom, co-founded Zentri and Silicon labs before joining Morse Micro in 2021 and currently leads Morse applications team as a VP of Applications.
PROF. NEIL WESTE
Fellow
Neil is an inventor, a visionary technologist and a distinguished researcher in the field of engineering. He co-authored the textbook “Principles of CMOS VLSI Design – A Systems Perspective” and has worked in many aspects of integrated-circuit design. Neil co-founded Radiata Communications, the world’s first company to commercialize a IEEE 802.11a Wi-Fi chip, purchased by CISCO in 2000. He is a key contributor to the development of Morse Micro RISC-V based digital architecture that underpin the company’s first commercial product, MM6108.
Non-Executive Board Members and Advisors
RAY STATA
Founder and Chairman of Analog Devices, Inc. Ray Stata is an entrepreneur and businessperson who has been at the head of 9 different companies and is presently an investor and board member.
BILL BARTEE
General Partner at Main Sequence Ventures. Bill Bartee was the co-founder and Managing Director of Blackbird Ventures and of Southern Cross Venture Partners. Bill was an early investor in Altium, Canva, Culture Amp, Seek & Quantenna.
ROBYN DENHOLM
Operating partner of Blackbird Ventures, supporting Morse Micro as an advisor to the board. Robyn Denholm is also the Inaugural Chair of the Technology Council of Australia and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tesla Inc.
DR. SAM HEIDARI
Esteemed CEO and Chairman in the semiconductor sector, currently holds the position of CEO at Lumotive, and serves as Chairman at Arctic Semiconductor. He previously was CEO and Chairman at Quantenna, CEO at Doradus Technologies, and CTO at Ikanos. Honored with multiple industry awards, he holds over 50 patents and serves on several prestigious boards.
INVESTORS
OUR OFFICES
Surry Hills, NSW 2010 AUSTRALIA
Portola Valley, CA
Hangzhou, China
Bangalore, India
Cambridge, UK
