【6/10/2021】CAPA-NoVA Distinguished Chinese American Project
David K. Lam（林杰屏）（1943 -）is a Chinese-born American technology entrepreneur. He founded Lam Research Corporation in 1980. He presently serves as Chairman of Multibeam Corporation (Santa Clara, CA), which manufactures complementary electron beam lithography (CEBL) systems. He also heads the David Lam Group, an investor and business advisor for high-growth technology companies.
The shift in Chinese American entrepreneurship has manifested in the significant increase in high-technology startups run by Chinese immigrants in Silicon Valley since the 1980s. Unlike traditional immigrant entrepreneurs who were concentrated in low-technology services and manufacturing sectors, the new immigrant entrepreneurs – often with advanced degrees in science and engineering – started their own businesses in the growing technology sector. One such trailblazer was David Lam, who started Lam Research – a semiconductor equipment designer and manufacturer – in 1980, and later became the first Asian American entrepreneur to take a company public on the NASDAQ exchange. Under Mr. Lam’s leadership, the company introduced the industry’s first fully automated plasma-etching system for semiconductor manufacturing and stayed at the forefront of plasma- etching technology, contributing to the rapid miniaturization of semiconductor wafers behind the development of economical personal computers.
Mr. Lam’s automation of the production process helped to scale up US semiconductor production, contributing greatly to the emergence of the country as a global leader in semiconductor development and increasing its competitiveness in the consumer electronics industry. By 2018, Lam Research was the second-largest manufacturer in the Greater Bay Area, employing over 3,000 people.
Mr. Lam’s experience reflects that of many Chinese American entrepreneurs who choose to start their own companies in reaction to “bamboo ceilings” in corporations. (He was passed over for promotion in 1979 when he worked for Hewlett-Packard; the candidate chosen over him was a white man he had hired and trained just eleven months previously.) Mr. Lam eventually left and founded Lam Research.
For additional reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_K._Lam
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