Board of Directors – Fiscal Year 2026 – 27
President – Glenn Friedman (IEEE)
Glenn Friedman is Principal Technologist for GXTec Consulting where he’s created strategies for novel device manufacturing, consulted on materials, processing, foundry relationships, and startup operations. He is an Adjunct Professor SJSU.
Current and past Chair of IEEE SFBA Nanotechnology Council, Friedman also served as Chair and Vice Chair of IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section 2019 – 2018.
Friedman has held engineering and management positions in both silicon and compound semiconductor wafer fabs and fabless services foundries.
Friedman’s R&D portfolio includes phase change memories, interlevel dielectrics, multilevel interconnects, high-temperature superconducting thin films.
He’s reviewed 100 SBIR/STTR proposals for NSF for: manufacturing, semiconductors, memory devices, photovoltaics, batteries, MEMS, optical & electronic materials, hi-tech medical, biomedical nanotechnology, and nano-instrumentation.
Friedman earned an MS Electrical Engineering – Applied Physics from UC San Diego and an MS and BS in Physics from North Carolina State University
Vice President – Chris Danek, PhD (ASME)
Chris Danek is a medtech builder, strategist, and educator. As the CEO of Bessel and creator of proprietary Bessel frameworks for startups and development teams, Chris pioneered the concept of the AI teammates for high-performance, blended teams.
He led the development of the first FDA-approved interventional treatment for asthma (Asthmatx/Boston Scientific), co-founded AtheroMed (developer of the Phoenix Atherectomy System, later acquired by Philips), and has guided teams through critical phases of product development, fundraising, and go-to-market & scale-up readiness. Chris has taught his Bessel Origin program for rapid innovation at Santa Clara University, the University of Texas at El Paso, the Catholic University of America, and Tecnologico de Monterey.
Chris has a PHD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, an MBA from the Wharton School, is an inventor of over 90 US patents, and is a member of ASME, BMES, SME, and ASQ.
Treasurer – Paul Jensen (IEEE)
Paul Jensen has several decades of experience working for technology companies in the Bay Area. He has held positions at MovieLabs, TiVo, Microsoft, Apple, and numerous startups. He has an extensive background in system software development, NoSQL databases, Digital Cinema, cryptography/DRM, and embedded applications. Paul is an active inventor and has received patent awards from Rovi and Microsoft. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University, and an MS/CS from the University of Washington. He is an IEEE & ACM member, and serves on the board of the Consultants’ Network of Silicon Valley (CNSV), an affiliate of the IEEE.
Secretary – Karthikeyan Chinnusamy (ACM)
Karthikeyan Chinnusamy possesses over 25 years of experience in Information Technology, Product Development, Research and Development, and Education. He holds the titles of Fellow of IETE, Fellow of IE, Senior Member of IEEE, Senior Member of ACM, and is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Additionally, he serves as a Reviewer and an Editorial Board Member for R&D Journals. He is a Board Member and Program Director for SF DAMA and SFBAY ACM. Furthermore, he reviews for the IEEE Silicon Valley Senior Member Elevation and for journals published by Springer Nature. He has also chaired the Synopsis special mention awards, sponsored by SFBAYACM, on two occasions.
Director – Catherine Fang, PhD (SWE SCV)
Catherine Fang is a Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also a seasoned and passionate researcher and entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in both the software industry and academia. Fang’s research and product expertise lies in personalized healthcare, clinical trials, AI-based therapy, and data mining on digital audience behavior profiling and targeting. With multiple US patents to her name, she also serves as an associate editor for the IEEE reliability society. Fang’s entrepreneurial spirit has led her to co-found AiCare, a cutting-edge AI and cloud-powered Healthcare & Medical platform. Prior to this, Fang served as global/senior product manager and architect at LinkedIn, Yahoo, Bluekai (acquired by Oracle), and Sun Microsystems.
Director – Marziya Hasan, PhD (SPE)
Dr. Marziya Hasan is a materials engineering leader with a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Texas Lutheran University. Her academic research focused on the design and development of porous shape memory polymers for medical and aerospace applications. With deep technical training in polymer characterization and synthesis, she has authored over 20 scientific publications, holds two U.S. patents, and served as co-investigator on NIH-funded research grants totaling approximately $3 million.
Professionally, Dr. Hasan is the Senior Manager of Chemistry at Shape Memory Medical Inc., where she oversees cross-functional engineering teams, leads material development projects, and ensures compliance with manufacturing and quality standards. Her work spans R&D scale-up, product testing, supplier management, and regulatory documentation. Beyond her technical role, Dr. Hasan is highly engaged in the scientific community, serving as a journal reviewer, editorial board member, and mentor and board member for the Society of Plastic Engineers – Golden Gate Section.
Director – Niranjan Nandakumar (ASME)
Director – Yanika Schneider, PhD (SPE)
Dr. Yanika Schneider received her Ph.D. from University of California at Santa Barbara in materials chemistry and did a post-doc at UC Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Since 2013, she has worked at Eurofins EAG where she specializes in the characterization of diverse materials using infrared and x-ray fluorescence spectroscopies. She also works as a project manager leading complex multi-technique investigations involving polymer degradation, contamination and deformulations.
In 2019, Dr. Schneider was invited to develop curricula related to polymer science at San Jose State University. She currently teaches two undergraduate courses (Polymers and Polymer Composites) and a master’s course (Research Methods). Dr. Schneider leads a research group focused on structure/function relationships in polymeric materials, including renewable and biodegradable polymers, anti-microbials and innovations in materials recycling.
Past – President – Cecilia (Ceal) D. Craig, PhD (SWE SCV)
Currently a nonprofit board of director officer in several local organizations, Dr. Cecilia (Ceal) D. Craig is a retired technology executive with 35+ years of experience in high-tech industries — printed circuit boards, typewriters, personal & mini computers, disc drives, Ethernet switches.
She earned a BSME (Mechanical Engineering: The Ohio State University), MSE (Engineering: California State University at Fullerton), and a PhD in Education (Walden University). A SWE Fellow and Distinguished Service Award recipient, she has been a Society of Women Engineers member for 50 years. Dr. Craig’s passion is supporting activities that inspire young women to pursue engineering, physics, and computer science careers.