Drew Nelson, Obe Email & Phone Number

With over 40 years of experience in the global Compound Semiconductor (CS) industry, Dr Drew Nelson is the founder and president of IQE plc, the global leader in advanced wafer products and services, as well as being an active entrepreneur, Angel investor and Board member/advisor for several other hi tec companies.Dr Nelson earned a BEng degree (1st Class Hons), PhD and Hon DSc in semiconductor technology from the University of Sheffield and has been awarded the OBE (Queens Birthday Honours), Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal, Katherine Burr Blodgett Gold medal (Institute of Physics), the Menelaus Medal (Learned Society of Wales) and lifetime achievement awards from the European and UK Electronics Industry for his contributions to developing the Compound Semiconductor industry in the UK & Europe and the creation of the worlds first Compound Semiconductor Cluster (CSConnected) in South Wales. He has been elected as Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Institute of Physics, Learned Society of Wales and Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University. Dr Nelson is passionate about the development and commercialisation of the Compound Semiconductor Industry, in the UK, Europe and globally. He has served on numerous UK Government advisory boards, was elected the President of the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC), represented the UK on the European High Level Group for Key Enabling Technologies (HLG KET) which developed the policy initiative (IPCEI) which was the pathfinder policy for the European CHIPS Act, and has served on multiple International advisory panels and Boards. In 2017, Dr Nelson led the rescue of Newport Wafer Fab (UKs largest chip fab) from certain closure, saving over 500 direct jobs and at least as many indirect jobs. The subsequent takeover events led directly to the creation of the UK’s National Semiconductor Strategy, which now has Compound Semiconductors as a core theme, in contrast to all other major economies which have concentrated on investing in leading edge Silicon technologies.More recently, Dr Nelson has established a CS Angel Syndicate specifically for supporting and investing in start up companies in the CS sector, and has founded a new company, Net Zero Semiconductors Ltd, to commercialise CS chip technologies to support the drive to a carbon neutral future based on CS technologies. His mission is to drive the development/commercialization of cutting-edge applications in AI, 5G/6G, IoT, optical comms, solar, sensing, display, power and quantum technologies, using compound semiconductors.

Listed skills include Business Strategy, Manufacturing, Ic, Characterization, and 2 others.