Onto Innovation Enhances Leadership Team with Two Senior Executive Appointments
Company names Brian Roberts as chief financial officer and Shirley Chen as senior vice president of customer success
Onto Innovation Inc. (NYSE:ONTO) ("Onto Innovation," "Onto," or the "Company") today announced the appointment of Brian Roberts as chief financial officer and Shirley Chen as senior vice president of customer success, strengthening its leadership team as the Company continues to advance its strategic objectives. Both appointments are effective as of June 16, 2025.
"The semiconductor industry remains one of the fastest-paced sectors globally," says Mike Plisinski, chief executive officer of Onto Innovation. "Sustaining this pace while transforming the organization to achieve new levels of performance requires a leadership team that is adaptable with exceptional communication and leadership skills. Brian and Shirley each bring an incredible depth of relevant experience that will contribute to the acceleration of our strategy to the benefit of all stakeholders."
Both Brian and Shirley will report to Mike Plisinski. Brian will be based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and Shirley will be based in Milpitas, California.
Brian Roberts – Chief Financial Officer
Seasoned financial executive to drive operational excellence
Brian brings to Onto Innovation broad financial, operational and leadership experience gained over his 30 year career with a track record of scaling organizations, improving margin performance and maximizing capital allocation.
With 20 years of experience as a CFO, 11 years for public companies in industries such as biotech, software and semiconductors, Brian has demonstrated the ability to rapidly scale high growth organizations while delivering on or exceeding company financial goals. He was most recently the CFO of Sensata Technologies, a publicly traded (NYSE:ST) global semiconductor technology company with approximately $4 billion in revenue in 2024 and over 20 factories around the globe.
"I am excited for the opportunity to work with Mike and the team to support Onto on the growth journey ahead," commented Brian Roberts. "With a long history of leading-edge innovation, Onto is uniquely positioned with the technology and capabilities to support its customers' goals to accelerate their product development, increase yields and reduce costs. I believe my experience building scale in global operations, M&A, and organizational development will contribute to improving operating margins and creating lasting value for our stakeholders."
Mark Slicer will be transitioning out of Onto Innovation and pursuing other opportunities. Mark will be available to support a smooth transition. "On behalf of the Onto Innovation team, I want to thank Mark for his contributions over the past three years. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors," added Mr. Plisinski.
Shirley Chen – Senior Vice President of Customer Success
Industry veteran to strategically align Onto's technology with evolving customer needs
Shirley will lead Onto's experienced team of sales, applications and service professionals to enable customers to achieve maximum value from Onto Innovation's comprehensive process control and lithography solution suite.
An industry veteran, Shirley brings 25 years of semiconductor experience, including 18 years of progressive sales leadership roles at KLA and Thermo-Fisher. Shirley joined KLA as senior manager of business development, eventually leading semiconductor process control products worldwide from software to metrology and inspection equipment for wafer/mask as the vice president of sales and business development. Shirley later joined Thermo-Fisher leading the commercial team for Thermo Fischer Scientifics Global Semiconductor division. At Thermo, she led a team of 800+ professionals across sales, sales operations, sales enablement, and field applications, advancing the adoption of electron microscopy solutions for semiconductor failure analysis and metrology workflows. Shirley's experience also includes marketing leadership and process engineering roles at FormFactor and Intel.
Shirley Chen commented, "I'm excited to join Onto at such a pivotal time. The Company has a strong foundation and bold ambitions, and I'm looking forward to accelerating growth, expanding our impact, and unlocking new opportunities with this exceptional team."
About Onto Innovation Inc.
Onto Innovation is a leader in process control, combining global scale with an expanded portfolio of leading-edge technologies that include: Un-patterned wafer quality; 3D metrology spanning chip features from nanometer scale transistors to large die interconnects; macro defect inspection of wafers and packages; metal interconnect composition; factory analytics; and lithography for advanced semiconductor packaging.
Our breadth of offerings across the entire semiconductor value chain combined with our connected thinking approach results in a unique perspective to help solve our customers' most difficult yield, device performance, quality, and reliability issues. Onto Innovation strives to optimize customers' critical path of progress by making them smarter, faster and more efficient.
With headquarters and manufacturing in the U.S., Onto Innovation supports customers with a worldwide sales and service organization. Additional information can be found at www.ontoinnovation.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act") which include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Onto Innovation's business momentum and future growth; technology development, product introduction and acceptance of Onto Innovation's products and services; Onto Innovation's manufacturing practices and ability to deliver both products and services consistent with its customers' demands and expectations and strengthen its market position; Onto Innovation's expectations regarding the semiconductor market outlook; Onto Innovation's future quarterly financial outlook; as well as other matters that are not purely historical data. Onto Innovation wishes to take advantage of the "safe harbor" provided for by the Act and cautions that actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of various factors, including risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Onto Innovation's control. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to leverage its resources to improve its position in its core markets; its ability to weather difficult economic environments; its ability to open new market opportunities and target high-margin markets; the strength/weakness of the back-end and/or front-end semiconductor market segments; fluctuations in customer capital spending; the Company's ability to effectively manage its supply chain and adequately source components from suppliers to meet customer demand; the effects of political, economic, legal, and regulatory changes, including tariffs and trade disputes, or conflicts on the Company's global operations; its ability to adequately protect its intellectual property rights and maintain data security; the effects of natural disasters or public health emergencies on the global economy and on the Company's customers, suppliers, employees, and business; its ability to effectively maneuver global trade issues and changes in trade and export regulations, tariffs and license policies; the Company's ability to maintain relationships with its customers and manage appropriate levels of inventory to meet customer demands; and the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and technologies. Additional information and considerations regarding the risks faced by Onto Innovation are available in Onto Innovation's Form 10-K report for the year ended December 28, 2024, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As the forward-looking statements are based on Onto Innovation's current expectations, the Company cannot guarantee any related future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Onto Innovation does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release, except as required by law.
Source: Onto Innovation Inc.
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Sidney Ho, +1 (626) 233-8431
sidney.ho@ontoinnovation.com