SAN DIEGO, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iridia™ Inc., a pioneer in the field of DNA-based data storage, today announced the appointment of Sandeep Vij, an experienced semiconductor industry executive, to its Board of Directors. With his appointment, Iridia’s Board has been expanded to seven members.

“We are excited to welcome an industry veteran of Sandeep’s caliber to the Iridia board,” said Jay Flatley, former Illumina CEO and Chairman of Iridia’s board. “With Sandeep’s decades of operational and strategic experience in the semiconductor industry and track record of driving shareholder value, we look forward to leveraging his expertise to accelerate Iridia’s mission critical development programs.”

Mr. Vij is an experienced semiconductor industry executive. He has built some of the industry’s most advanced semiconductors (FPGAs, microprocessors and networking chips) on leading edge process technologies at the world’s largest fabs.

“Sandeep’s long history of industry successes, coupled with his experience advising emerging growth as well as global companies, makes him a significant addition to our board,” said Murali K. Prahalad, Ph.D., President and CEO of Iridia. “I look forward to working closely with Sandeep and benefitting from his technical and strategic guidance as we usher in a new paradigm in DNA data storage.”

“I feel privileged to join Iridia’s esteemed board,” said Sandeep Vij. “Iridia is poised to transform the data storage industry and address a challenge that up to this point has eluded companies large and small.”

About Sandeep Vij
Sandeep Vij is a managing partner of Argean Capital. Prior to Argean, he was the CEO of MIPS Technologies where he tripled MIPS shareholder value in three years by overhauling the company’s microprocessor product portfolio, targeting new high-growth markets, and executing the only bifurcated sale of an operating business and patent portfolio in the technology industry. Sandeep was previously on the executive staff of Xilinx for 12 years as VP & GM. He was responsible for growing Xilinx from <$500M to $2B in revenue by developing a new high-volume FPGA business which grew to over $1B/year. Prior to that, Sandeep spent 5 years at Altera where he helped introduce a high-end FPGA business that also generated over $1B in revenue.

Vij is currently a board member of Coherent Corp (NYSE: COHR), a global leader in semiconductor materials, networking and lasers. He also sits on the boards of Kinetica and KlearNow. Sandeep has an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and a BSEE.

About Iridia, Inc.
Headquartered in Carlsbad, CA, Iridia™ Inc. strategically combines proprietary enzymology and semiconductor technology to revolutionize long-term data storage. By leveraging DNA, nature’s perfected data storage system, the company is developing a durable, decodable, and ultra-high-density mode of data storage, that significantly reduces the infrastructure requirements and environmental impact compared to current approaches. Iridia’s proprietary technology platform is the world’s first affordable, integrated data storage solution that integrates molecular biology, biochemistry and semiconductor technology to write, store, and read data in the form of DNA. For more information, please visit www.iridia.com.

Media Contact
Joleen Schultz
760-271-8150
joleen@joleenschultzassociates.com 

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/18d2b91e-2070-4369-9f83-84c4d525b98e