Irwin Federman

Irwin Federman, who joined USVP as a General Partner in April 1990, was President and CEO of Monolithic Memories, Inc. from 1978 to 1987. MMI was a startling turnaround. Under Irwin’s leadership, the Company grew from virtual bankruptcy to $250 million in revenues during his nine-year tenure as CEO. After becoming a public company, MMI merged with AMD, of which Irwin became Vice Chairman. Irwin was also two-term Chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association, has served on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association and served two terms on the Dean’s Advisory Board of Santa Clara University. As CEO at Monolithic Memories, Irwin initiated MMI investments in such highly successful venture capital start-ups as Altera, Cypress Semiconductor and Xilinx.

As a professional venture capitalist, Irwin was a founding or lead investor in Blue Martini, Check Point Software Technologies, Centillium Communications, Crescendo Communications, MMC Networks, NeoMagic, Netro, Nuance Communications, QuickLogic, SanDisk, and TelCom Semiconductor. Irwin has been the founding or lead investor in a number of high-potential, high-profile early-stage venture capital investments, including BeVocal, ON24, and Mellanox, among others. He has been the recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award and the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Community and Justice. In 2004, Irwin was inducted into Junior Achievement’s Silicon Valley Hall of Fame. Irwin received a B.S. in Economics from Brooklyn College and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering Science from Santa Clara University.