Management Team

James Hogan

Investor, Chairman of the Board

Jim Hogan advises on the topics of marketing, funding, and sales. He assists the Founder with recruitment within his big professional network. Having worked in the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry for more than 40 years, Jim has gained experience as a senior executive and board director in EDA, intellectual property, and IT companies. He is currently the managing partner of Vista Ventures, LLC. His connections in the Silicon Valley and Europe brought him to the board of directors of several private companies  (like OneSpin in Germany, sureCore, US, Breker, US). Additionally, Jim serves as a strategic advisor to several private and public companies, like Optima.

Jamil Mazzawi

President and Chief Executive Officer

Jami Mazzawi has over 25 years’ experience in the semiconductor and EDA industries across Silicon Valley, Israel, and Europe. He has held engineering, sales, and managerial positions at Ornet Data Communication, Verisity, Rambus, Sun Microsystems, Jasper Design Automation, and now Optima. With a successful track record developing, promoting, and selling disruptive technologies that include advanced verification solutions and leading automotive development products, Jamil authored seven patents in related fields. Jamil is also the director and co-founder of the Nazareth Startup Company Forum (NSCF) promoting Arab-owned startup companies in Israel. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the Technion, Israel and an MBA from San Jose University, CA.

Jamil is a Functional Safety Certified Semiconductor Expert (FSCSE by TÜV NORD).

Sathyam Pattanam

Chief Technology Officer, Board Member

Sathyam Pattanam has over 30 years of experience in company, engineering management and software development in Electronic Design Automation (EDA) companies. He has headed companies, global engineering and marketing organizations in 4 companies in Fortune-500 and in 8 startups to introduce innovative and successful products. He has led several startups such as Karthik Electronics, Atrenta, and ArchPro Design Automation to successful exits. Sathyam’s prior positions were at Avery Design Systems, Atrenta, Synopsys, ArchPro, BlueSpec, AT&T Bell Labs, and Karthik Electronics. He has organized and participated at several IEEE sponsored conferences. Sathyam holds a mini-MBA in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University, the USA, and a B.Tech in Electronics from the Indian Institute of Technology, India.

David Kelf

Board Advisor, Marketing

Dave Kelf advises on all marketing and business development activities for Optima. Dave is well known in the EDA and semiconductor industries, having served as VP marketing for multiple successful small EDA companies including Breker Verification systems, OneSpin, and Novas (Spingsoft). Kelf was president and CEO of Sigmatix, Inc., a successful wireless IP provider. At Cadence Design Systems he was responsible for the Verilog and VHDL verification product lines. As vice president of marketing at Co-Design Automation and then Synopsys, Kelf oversaw the successful introduction and growth of the SystemVerilog language. Kelf also held engineering positions at Plessey and Nortel. Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Computer Systems from Salford University, Manchester UK, and a Master of Science degree in Microelectronics from West London University, plus an MBA from Boston University, USA.

Nael Qudsi

Director of Engineering

Nael Qudsi is responsible for Optima Design Automation’s engineering team, developing the next generation of Functional Safety fault analysis technology as well as streamlining related methodologies. Prior to Optima, Nael held both technical and management positions at Jasper Design Automation, later acquired by Cadence Design Systems. There he worked on advanced formal technologies, including safety analysis products, as part of the popular JasperGold formal tools. As a research assistant Nael leveraged his expertise in parallel multithreaded compilers and automated Boolean optimization methods. Nael has also worked as a cyber security consultant for multiple organizations. Nael holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Haifa University in Israel.

Nael is a Functional Safety Certified Semiconductor Expert (FSCSE by TÜV NORD).

Sesha Sai Kumar C.V.

Director of Application Engineering

Sesha Sai Kumar C.V has more than 25 years of rich VLSI eco-system experience from Concept to Chip. Started his career as a Scientist in India’s Defence RnD, he worked at Synopsys, LSI Logic, ArchPro (acquired by Synopsys). He worked on Applications Engineering in the field of, Functional Safety and Fault Campaign, Low Power VLSI verification, Clock Domain Crossing, Concept to Chip Digital Designs, and VLSI education.  Sesha has co-founded SkandVLSI, introducing a Learn-Practice-teach platform called VGuru Verilog/VHDL with interactive guidance for university undergrads. He holds a BTech in Electronics and Communications Engineering from SV University, India.

Sesha is a Certified Semiconductor Automotive Functional safety professional (SC-AFSP by SGS-TUV SAAR).

Orayb Hija

Financial Controller

Orayb Hija is responsible for accounting management, budget planning, tracking, and execution. She has extensive experience, expertise, and results in accounting, financial and regulatory reporting, analysis, and project management. Orayb holds a BA in Accounting and Finance from New York University and a BA in Law from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.