News: Microelectronics
4 August 2021
Cree expands operations leadership team
Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA, which manufactures silicon carbide (SiC) wafers and devices through its Wolfspeed business, has expanded its operations leadership team as part of its accelerated growth and capacity expansion plans and planned retirement of Rick McFarland, senior VP of global operations, in Summer 2022.
Rex Felton, currently directing the construction of the new silicon carbide facility in Marcy, NY, will now oversee the firm’s fab operations, planning functions and quality efforts, reporting to CEO Gregg Lowe. McFarland will continue to lead the company’s materials and back-end operations along with facilities and procurement activities through first-half 2022 and assist Felton with the transition.
“As we continue to drive the industry’s transition from silicon to silicon carbide, it is critically important that we continue to scale our operations to meet the growing needs of our customers. Rick has done an incredible job of helping us position the company for long-term growth and improve performance across our operations footprint. We appreciate his willingness to support an orderly transition prior to his retirement and we believe Rex is the perfect leader for the organization going forward,” said Lowe.
Felton joined Cree in 2019 and currently serves as senior VP of fab operations. Prior to joining Cree, he was VP of powertrain electronics operations at Delphi Technologies, responsible for powertrain electronics, electrification manufacturing facilities, and associated support functions. Prior to Delphi, Felton was senior wafer fab manager for Texas Instruments’ three Dallas fabs and the Operations Fab/Assembly Test Site in Chengdu, China. Felton was also general manager for DMOS 5, TI’s largest fab in terms of size and volume, and home to the company’s most advanced ICs for analog, logic and embedded memory.
Cree has also appointed Missy Stigall as the new VP of fab operations based in North Carolina, reporting directly to Felton. She joins Cree with more than 20 years of engineering and people leadership experience at Texas Instruments. As a former factory and site manager for a high-volume wafer fab, she has extensive expertise in overseeing large-scale manufacturing operations. In this role, she pioneered and managed high-visibility global projects in collaboration with executive leadership and cross-functional teams while also orchestrating a high-performing workforce, says Cree.
