semiconductor company where he worked
for several years, culminating in a success-
ful IPO. One of his customers, Siemens,
offered Chuck a marketing management
job in its Optoelectronics LED division.
Over the course of 13 years there, Chuck
became general manager of the division and
developed it into a $300 million business.
“Our division was going to be spun off,
so after arranging financial support from
Summit Partners, a private equity firm, I
told Siemens I wanted to buy it.”
While Summit Partners was in the
process of offering to back a potential buy-
out, its principals invited Chuck to join the
firm as its entrepreneur-in-residence. He
worked hard to pick up on the basic skills
and lingo of venture capitalism.
“In the end we determined market con-
ditions weren’t right to complete the buy-
out. But during the process I learned a lot
about the financial world. When you realize
that you don’t know what you don’t know,
that’s when true learning begins.”
In 2001, another venture firm offered
Chuck a CEO position with Summit
Microelectronics. He led that company
for four years through a punishing tech
downturn and it was later acquired by
Qualcomm.
A former business colleague from
Siemens asked Chuck to start up a new
LED company in 2005. They boot-
strapped efforts and officially launched as
Optoelectronix a year later. Their first big
customer was none other than Siemens.
Despite Wall Street’s meltdown in 2008,
they obtained $6 million in VC money.
They consolidated operations in Pa Nang,
and opted to forego taking their own sala-
ries for several years. By 2012 the company
was thriving.
Today, LED is a hot market.
Optoelectronix is making a variety of
commercial LED lighting used in land-
scaping, parking lots, walk-in refrigerators
and automotive paint booths. Chuck
continues to enjoy his role as CEO.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s
while Chuck was busy in his career, Sue left
Intel for Cisco, and then ran a temp services
franchise in Sunnyvale, which she eventu-
ally sold. Just shy of her 60 th birthday, Sue
went back to school and earned her Master’s
degree, then spent the next eight years
teaching Business Communications at San
Jose State University.
“During my high tech career I had
managed many people who struggled at
work largely because English was their
second language and their communications
skills were weak,” Sue said. “As a teacher
I was able to help people become better
communicators so they would have a better
chance of advancing in their careers.”
Music and Motorcycles
When Chuck was a boy, his father gave him
a harmonica. He taught himself how to
play and has kept it up ever since. Today he
enjoys playing Blues with local musicians.
He also plays bluegrass music with the
Foggy Memory Band, which started out as
a group of guys who met occasionally at
one of their homes to do a little jamming.
Chuck thought they had a pretty good
sound, so one day he said to his band
mates, “Let’s play for other people!” Their
very first gig at GVA Café filled the house.
Since then, the Foggy Memory Band has
played at all kinds of venues, including the
Rotary Club’s annual Seniors Luncheon,
First Fridays events in Los Altos