Harvard University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Senior Technologist & Manager at Western Digital

San Jose, California

Western Digital

Senior Technologist & Manager

- Technical lead for Two Dimensional Magnetic Recording (TDMR) read heads - first 14TB HDD•	Master at data analysis, failure analysis, process integration and solving difficult technical challenges•	Led migration to Lean project management, resulting in organizational alignment and on-time execution

Senior Manager

- Technologist in HGST Research - HGST was acquired by Western Digital•	Brought Two Dimensional Magnetic Recording heads from research to development•	Specified, procured and debugged an Ion Beam Sputtering system for optical applications; managed specs, budgets, equipment engineering, installation and process in the US and UK

Technologist

Director Front End Engineering Earlier titles: Director Equipment Engineering; Director Thermal Process and Yield Engineering•	Early Employee with critical role in creating company from scratch•	Led procurement and engineering for equipment – globally evaluating vendors, managing budgets, negotiating specifications and contracts, acceptance testing, installation, etc.•	Developed four generations of thermal equipment and processes, moving the company from laboratory to development to production•	Developed and procured optical tools – Selenium concentration (absorption), Solar Cell Characterization (LBIC) and Laser Scribers•	Directed four Engineering Managers/Groups – Equipment, Thermal, Wet and Vacuum•	Designed and coded a web-based MES reporting and data warehouse system•	Recruited employees to staff up engineering, device physics, IT and process areas

Solopower

Director Front End Engineering

- Technical due diligence on behalf of VCs•	Advised process equipment companies in design, compliance, partnerships and market sizing•	Taught classes at Semiconductor equipment companies in recording head manufacturing

Howard G Zolla

Independent Consultant

Technical and project leader for materials, metrology, process equipment and process development for  thin film recording head wafer fabs in US, Japan and Germany•	Company-wide lead for dielectric processes & metrology, metal interconnect and cermet films•	Engineered process and metrology equipment – specifying, selecting, debugging and installing several generations of equipment; internally raised over $20M in capital•	Developed instrumentation and test code – Ellipsometers, Magnetometers, Magnetostriction Testers and Magnetic annealing Furnaces.•	Patented numerous innovations in such diverse areas as antireflection coatings, device patterning, optical alignment, ESD and Magnetic Tunnel Junctions•	Honored with numerous IBM and Hitachi Technical Achievement & Patent Awards

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (formerly IBM)

Senior Engineer

Characterization Engineer in a recording heads startup company•	Established reliability group and test center; built and automated all equipment•	Tirelessly worked with customers enabling first product qualification•	Utilized accelerated life tests and modeling to determine safe operating guidelines for MR heads•	Negotiated with customers to develop reliability standards, testing methods and documentation

Howard Zolla