Sentons Inc., the global leader revolutionizing the world of touch and force sensing beyond the screen and beyond glass, today announced that it has named Jess Lee as its new President & CEO. Mr. Lee joins the company with more than 25 years of advanced sensor engineering and executive leadership from InVisage, Apple, OmniVision, and Silicon Graphics. In addition, the company announced that Forest Baskett, PhD., a general partner at global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) will join the Board of Directors. Dr. Baskett brings over 35 years of leadership and experience in the computing and semiconductor markets.
“We’re excited to welcome both Jess and Forest to the team,” said Sam Sheng, co-founder and CTO of Sentons. “Jess brings invaluable direct knowledge and operational experience in the advanced sensing and semiconductor industries. This, along with Forest’s incredible depth from his successful investment portfolio and background in the computing world he helped establish, puts us in a strong position to capture the market. Having both Forest (former CTO of SGI) and Greg Papadopoulos (Venture Partner at NEA and former CTO of Sun) represented on the board is huge for us. We are thrilled to have them all on the team!”
“I’m joining Sentons at a very exciting time,” said Mr. Lee. “Every device surface—metal or glass, flat or curved—is an opportunity for us to add interactivity for users and take the human machine interface to the next level. I’m looking forward to making a huge impact with our groundbreaking products.”
“Sentons’ expansive user interface technology is truly a remarkable achievement—a huge technological leap forward that I am sure will have a lasting impact on how users interact with intelligent devices for decades to come,” said Dr. Baskett.
Prior to Sentons, Mr. Lee served as President and CEO of InVisage Technologies, where he established a new category of high performance cameras and image sensors powered by designer quantum dot films. Jess led InVisage from its neonatal R&D stage to product adoption and revenue with Tier 1s, more than $100M of capital raises, and ultimately its successful exit to Apple, where he drove M&A integration into undisclosed projects. His previous companies include OmniVision Technologies where, as VP & GM of its Mainstream Business Unit, he drove their growth from $50M in annual sales to more than $500M in less than four years.
As a general partner at NEA, Dr. Baskett has partnered with many technology companies, many of which have had successful exits including Tableau Software (IPO), Atheros Communications (IPO), Audience (IPO), Fusion-io (IPO), and Data Domain (IPO). Dr. Baskett joined NEA as a Venture Partner in 1999 and became General Partner in 2004. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, he worked in the tech world as Senior Vice President of R&D and CTO of Silicon Graphics Inc., and was a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
About Sentons, Inc.
Sentons, Inc. is venture-backed and the world leader in advanced touch and force sensing solutions. Sentons’ market defining technology utilizes a combination of ultrasound and direct force sensors, to enable unprecedented ways for users to interact with their personal devices. The result is stunning and intuitive user experiences that extend interactivity to all physical surfaces of a device, beyond the touchscreen. Sentons works with leading OEMs to implement this technology into the next generation of mobile phones, tablets, and other electronic products. Founded in 2011, Sentons is venture funded by New Enterprise Associates and Northern Light Venture Capital. More information is available at www.sentons.com.
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With more than $20 billion in cumulative committed capital since the firm’s founding in 1977, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s long track record of successful investing includes more than 225 portfolio company IPOs and more than 375 acquisitions. For additional information, visit www.nea.com