About Us

Management Team

Peter van der Meulen
Founder and Chairman

Peter has been in the semiconductor industry for over 16 years. During his career, Peter has served in a variety of management positions in engineering, marketing, strategic business development, and sales. As a BlueShift founder, Peter has assembled a world-class management team and raised over $14 million in funding. Peter created BlueShift's revolutionary linkable vacuum system design and has several patents to his name. Peter has also given numerous talks and papers about semiconductor automation at industry conferences and meetings.

Peter served as a General Manager for Brooks Automation's Equipment Front End Business, which he started and grew during the 2001-'02 downturn to $12M. He also ran Brooks' vacuum systems business for 7 years during which revenues grew from $2.5M to $65M. Peter worked for Inspex, where he was the director of Sales and Marketing for DMS, a yield management software product. Peter worked for Varian Ion Implant Systems for 5 years where he designed the E500 implanter.

Peter has a Masters in Physics from Eindhoven University in The Netherlands and an MBA from Babson College. He continues to serve as a chairman of the Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC).

Richard Melanson
President and CEO

Rich has over 20 years of President/CEO/COO experience in semiconductor capital equipment and scientific instrument companies. In addition to his general management experience Rich has extensive cross functional management experience in field service, manufacturing, sales, finance, mergers & acquisitions and business development. He has a proven track record of growing revenue and profitability.

Before joining BlueShift, Rich served as a senior executive at GlenRose Partners a private equity firm. Prior to Glen Rose, he held senior management positions at Thermo Electron, a $4.5B NYSE company. Positions held included President of Neslab Instruments ($68M), COO ThermoSpectra ($180M) a public sub of Thermo, VP Business Development ($800M), Optical Technologies Sector, and Division President of the Industrial and Weighing & Inspection Divisions ($250M). Rich served as President of Philips ElectroScan after leading the successful acquisition to Philips Electron Optics. ElectroScan was a venture capital financed start-up where he advanced from VP of Manufacturing to COO to President & CEO. He began his career at AMRAY (KLA-Tencor), advancing to become VP of Operations.

Rich has a BSBA from Lowell Technological Institute and a Masters in Science from Bentley College.    

Mehran Asdigha, PhD
Sr. Vice President of Engineering

Mehran brings to BlueShift over 18 years of experience in product development and management of robotics, controls and system solutions to the Semiconductor and automation markets. Mehran has a successful background in the design and development of advanced electromechanical systems, vibration analysis and control, as well as new product introduction and management. He comes to BlueShift from Akrion LLC as Vice President of Technology and Product Development where he led the development of the first solar platforms, and contributed to the conceptual architectural development of next generation solar platforms.
Prior to Akrion, he held lead roles as Chief Engineer, System Architect, New Product Manager and Director for PRI, Axcelis Technologies, and Brooks Automation. He holds multiple patents in the areas of thermal control, wafer handling and robotic design.
Dr. Asdigha received his BSME degree from Michigan State University and his MSME and PhD from Tufts University.

Patrick Pannese
Chief Technical Officer, Vice President of Software, and Founder

Patrick comes to BlueShift with over 18 years of experience as a technology leader in semiconductor and related industries. He has a successful record of product development applying leading edge technologies and has proven himself formidable in building effective teams. Patrick has applied his experience to the areas of distributed controls, real-time simulations, and control of complex semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Before his appointment as the company's first CTO, Patrick founded Cauldronsoft where he initially developed the software architecture and scheduling strategy used by BlueShift. Previously, Patrick was the Director of Next Generation Controls and Architecture for Brooks Automation. In this capacity, he introduced significant improvements in software and equipment performance and led the creation of new software architectures for vacuum and atmospheric systems. Patrick joined Brooks from Ulvac where his group was responsible for the new software architecture for Ulvac's semiconductor and OLED equipment. At Ferrofluidics, Patrick led the team that created one of the industry's first successful software and controls architectures for a 300 mm Czochralski crystal puller system. Prior to Ferrofluidics Patrick worked at Seaview Thermal Systems, his second startup, where he led the Electrical, Instrument and Controls department. Prior to Seaview, Patrick co-founded Virtual Reality Systems, a company dedicated to the design of virtual reality software for real-time online user simulations.

Patrick graduated Summa Cum Laude with degrees in Aeronautics, Mathematics and Physics.

Bob Doucette
Vice President of Operations

Bob brings to BlueShift more than 20 years of experience in operations management.  He has a successful track record of executive leadership in start-up ventures as well as high growth, global enterprises.  Bob has a wealth of knowledge and experience in supply chain management, multi-plant manufacturing operations, process transformation, and demand and operations planning.

Bob joins BlueShift from Egenera where he served as the company’s Vice President of Manufacturing and Quality responsible for outsourced production processes and implementation of transformational strategies to improve operations and supply chain performance. Prior to Egenera Bob was Vice President of Operations at WaveSmith Networks (acquired by Ciena in June 2003) where he was responsible for manufacturing, supply-chain operations and quality. As executive vice president of the global supply chain at Marconi Networks, Bob directed all strategic and operational aspects of the global supply chain including multinational manufacturing facilities., Bob served as Senior Vice President of Operations at FORE Systems (acquired by Marconi), where his responsibilities included global manufacturing, corporate information systems, corporate quality, customer service, logistics and facilities. He has also held management positions at Altron Inc. and Stratus Computer.

Bob holds BS in management from Lesley University.

Marty Petraitis
Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Marty brings 29 years of experience in the semiconductor industry where he has led companies in automation and supply chain industries. He has a track record of growing revenues with leadership roles in Sales, Marketing, Consulting and Manufacturing operations.

He comes to Blueshift Technologies from Vykor Inc where he led Sales and software solutions for manufacturing cost visibility through outsourced manufacturing supply chains. Prior to Vykor, Marty led world wide sales for Brooks Automation's end user business and was responsible for growing revenue from $4M to $210m. He came to Brooks through the acquisition of Fastech, a leading provider of software system solutions for Semiconductor automation, where he served as Marketing Director and Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales and Consulting Services growing a nascent business to record revenues. Prior to Fastech, Marty launched the Semiconductor Systems Integration practice at Digital Equipment Corporation becoming the industry leader in Semiconductor Manufacturing solutions with such companies as Motorola, Chartered Semiconductor, ProMOS, and Toshiba. Early in his career Marty served as Director of Automation Systems and Advanced Technology for National Semiconductor implementing advanced manufacturing systems and an early pioneer in bump process technology.

Marty has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

D. Tyler Drolet
Chief Financial Officer

Tyler brings 23 years of financial and operational experience to BlueShift, including 17 years as a corporate, high technology financial executive and six years in public accounting.

Tyler has a track record of growing organizations, raising capital and driving strategic and financial planning for high-growth software, Internet and instrument manufacturing businesses. In his previous positions as Director of Finance at Groove Networks and Adero, and as Chief Financial Officer at Ziplink and Auburn International, he led all financial, operational and administrative functions including human resources, investor relations, and capital formation activities. He helped set strategic direction, led and participated in raising $225 million in equity and debt, and participated in three successful acquisitions. Tyler began his career in public accounting with Arthur Andersen LLP and Tonneson & Company, CPAs.

Tyler has a BS in Business Administration from Bucknell University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Hiroshi Omori
Vice President and General Manager

Hiroshi has been in the semiconductor industry for over 22 years. During his career, Hiroshi has served in a variety of management positions in international business development, sales and marketing.

Before joining BlueShift, Hiroshi served as Executive Vice President at Aitec, where he was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing. Prior to Aitec, Hiroshi was a founder of Brooks Automation Japan KK where during his tenure, revenues increased from zero to more than $40 million in five years. Hiroshi co-founded Genesys, Inc., where he developed remote maintenance management software for semiconductor equipment manufacturing. He also served as international business development consultant for several foreign-based companies. Hiroshi worked for Tokyo Electron Limited for five years, two years of which were at TEL America in Boston.

Hiroshi has a BS in Control Engineering from KEIO University.