Patrick Samama, CEO

Patrick Samama joins Alchimer with more than 25 years of experience in successfully managing and developing young technology businesses internationally. He previously served as president and CEO of MASA Group, which he transformed from a local artificial intelligence R&D-oriented service company into a profitable international vendor of simulation software for defense, security and corporate markets, achieving strong revenue growth. At MASA Group, he also developed in Europe and the U.S. a line of business for advanced process control for semiconductor manufacturers, based on a unique statistical learning technology.

Prior to that, Patrick served as president and CEO of CTS (now Mentum Planet), a planning-and-optimization software vendor for mobile operators. He created CTS as a spin-off of a major French system integrator and doubled its size within three years.

Earlier in his career, Patrick created and managed the French telecommunication practice for Bossard/Gemini Management Consulting, and was associate partner for the France and Benelux Media and Telecom practice of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where he sold and managed large information-systems integration projects for major accounts in Europe. Before joining Bossard, he held a variety of management positions with Thomson/Thales, including international business development manager for Europe and the U.S. and product manager of the ATM broadband-network product line. He also founded and developed an in-house consulting business unit for corporate strategy and technology management.

Patrick has a master’s of science degree from the École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA), and an M.B.A. degree from École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC), France, and Babson College, U.S.

Nicolas Laforest, CFO

Nicolas Laforest joins Alchimer with a diverse background as chief financial officer and financial consultant working for high-technology companies. Previously, he was CFO at EDF Teleservices, the EDF Group start-up that combines the classic energy offer with new technologies, including remote monitoring of energy consumption.

He also was CFO at Citilog, a leading provider of advanced video-based monitoring products that help identify traffic, road and infrastructure incidents in real time. Nicolas also has served as CFO for SATIMO, an international industry leader in electromagnetic field measurement systems, and as assistant to the CFO for Holcim, one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates. Earlier in his career, he was a manager for Ernst & Young Audit. He has a degree from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, one of the highest-rated business schools in Europe.

Frédéric Raynal, Director Product Development

Frédéric joined Alchimer in 2003 with a strong background in R&D, engineering and product development. His expertise encompasses electrochemistry and molecular engineering in back end of line (BEOL) copper metallization, 3D-IC metallization, fuel cells, batteries and sensors. As director of product development, Frédéric leads Alchimer’s programs to develop new chemistries and process recipes for high-performance deposition technology that offers a substantially lower cost of ownership than dry processes (CVD, PVD, ALD).

Earlier in his career Frédéric did research on the scale up of electro-synthesis processes at Electricity of France (EDF) and on the electrochemical activity of platinum nanoparticles for fuel cell applications at CEA Saclay. He also served as a research engineer at Technicatom.

He holds a Ph.D. degree in electrochemistry from the University of Paris XII and a DEA in process engineering from the University of Toulouse III. Frédéric is also the inventor or co-inventor of several patents.

Vincent Mevellec, Director of Microelectronics Research and Development

Vincent joined Alchimer in 2007 as a research engineer, after holding a similar position at CEA Saclay. At CEA, he worked on surface modifications such as polymer grafting and nanocoatings deposition and he invented the Graftfast technology for grafting polymer in aqueous phase on any type of conducting or insulating substrate.

Vincent was named Alchimer’s director of microelectronics research and development in 2008.

In that position, he is responsible for continuous improvement of Alchimer’s existing IP portfolio in the field of microelectronics, especially 3D copper interconnects, flex metallization and dual damascene. He also leads research into new product design and new wet solutions for those applications and TSVs, as well as research into new markets and applications for Alchimer’s existing technologies.

Vincent earned a Ph.D. degree in nanochemistry and an engineering degree in organic chemistry from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes. He is the primary inventor on 13 patents in the field of nanocoatings.