Completed
Tempo Automation Inc.
ACE Convergence Acquisition Corp.
- Registration2020-07-06 Filed S1
- IPO2020-07-29 IPO, search begins
- Definitive Agreement2021-10-13 Agreement for merger
- Completed2022-12-13 Merger Completed
- Raised
- $200M
- CIK
- 1813658
- SPAC Ticker
- ACEVU
- Merger
- Tempo Automation Inc.
- Merged Ticker
- TMPO
- Focus
- Technology
SPAC Team
Leadership
Behrooz Abdi has been our Chief Executive Officer since May 2020 and will serve as the Chairman of our board of directors following the completion of this offering. Mr. Abdi is currently a Strategic Advisor for the Sensor System Business Company of TDK, a position he has held since April 2020. Prior to this, from 2012 to March 2020, he was CEO of InvenSense. He was previously CEO and President of network processor company, RMI, from 2007 to 2009, and Executive Vice President of RMI’s acquirer, NetLogic, from 2009 to 2011. From 2004 until 2007, Mr. Abdi served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of QCT at Qualcomm. Prior to this, Mr. Abdi worked at Motorola Inc. for 18 years, from 1985 to 2003, where his last role was Vice President and General Manager in charge of the mobile radio frequency and mixed-signal integrated circuits product lines. Mr. Abdi holds a bachelors’ degree in electrical engineering from the Montana State University-Bozeman and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Among the reasons for his appointment as a director, Mr. Abdi’s business, technical and operational experience, as well as the experience that he has accumulated through his activities as an executive, add strategic vision to the board of directors to assist with our ultimate business combination transaction.
Dr. Sunny Siu has been our President since May 2020 and will serve as a director following the completion of this offering. Dr. Siu is currently Co-Founder and President of ProphetStor Data Services Inc., an emerging solution provider in the artificial intelligence for IT Operations market. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director — Greater China for the Processors and Wireless Infrastructure Business Unit of Broadcom from 2012 to 2015, after Broadcom acquired NetLogic in 2012. Prior to such acquisition, Dr. Siu served as NetLogic’s President and General Manager — Asia Pacific from 2009 to 2012. He held the same role from 2002 to 2009 at RMI, where he was a co-founder, before it was acquired by NetLogic in 2009. Before entering the industry, Dr. Siu was Associate Professor and Alex d’Arbeloff Career Development Chair at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”) from 1996 to 2002, where he founded the MIT Auto ID Center in 1998, pioneering research on Internet of Things. Dr. Siu started his career as an Assistant Professor at University of California — Irvine from 1991 to 1995. Dr. Siu received a B.S. (summa cum laude) in mathematics and computer science from New York University and a B.E. (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Additionally, Dr. Siu holds a PhD and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Dr. Siu’s extensive experience in managing and operating public and private companies of varying size and significant experience in the technology sector enable him to provide valuable expertise to our board of directors.
Denis Tse has been our Secretary since May 2020 and a director since April 2020. Currently, Mr. Tse is the Chief Executive Officer of ACE Equity Partners International Pte Ltd., the international subsidiary of ACE Equity Partners, and Founder and Managing Partner of its affiliate, Asia-IO Advisors Limited. Prior to this, Mr. Tse served as Head of Private Investments — Asia at Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company from 2009 to 2015. Mr. Tse received a B.S. in policy studies and economics from Northwestern University and his M.B.A. from INSEAD.
Mr. Tse’s extensive experience in managing and operating large organizations, and his extensive experience in the areas of finance, strategy and investing, particularly in the technology sector, make him a valuable addition to our board of directors.
Minyoung Park has been our Chief Financial Officer since May 2020. Currently, Ms. Park serves as the Compliance Officer of ACE Equity Partners, a position she has held since March, 2020. Previously, she was with the financial due diligence team of the cross-border deal advisory department at KPMG from December 2017 to February 2020. Prior to that, Ms. Park was responsible for accounting and finance at CJ 4DPlex America, Inc. from April 2016 to August 2017 and a CPA with ABC CPAs from 2013 to 2016. Ms. Park is a licensed AICPA and holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Science from University of California — San Diego.
Kenneth Klein will serve as a director following the completion of this offering. He is currently CEO and co-founder of Praisidio, Inc. a venture capital-backed AI software company in the Enterprise Risk Management space. He has also served as an independent director of MobileIron, Inc. since 2016. Prior to Praisidio, Mr. Klein served as the Chairman and CEO of Tintri, Inc. (“Tintri”), an intelligent infrastructure provider, from 2013 until March 2018. Previously, he was with Wind River Systems, Inc. (“Wind River”), an embedded software company, where he served as a director from July 2003 and as Chair of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer from 2004 until Wind River’s acquisition by Intel Corp. in 2009. Mr. Klein continued as President of Wind River after it became an Intel subsidiary until 2013. Prior to joining Wind River, Mr. Klein was with Mercury Interactive Corporation (“Mercury Interactive”), a software company focused on business technology optimization, where he served as Chief Operating Officer and as a director on their Board from 2000 until 2003. Mr. Klein held other management positions at Mercury Interactive from 1992 through 1999, including President of North American Operations and Vice President of North American Sales. Mr. Klein holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California. He is a USC Distinguished Alumnus, a member of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Board of Councilors, the founder of USC’s Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life, and a USC Trustee.
Mr. Klein became Chief Executive Officer of Tintri in October 2013 and resigned in March 2018. Tintri consummated its initial public offering in June 2017 and later filed for bankruptcy in July 2018. Shortly thereafter, Tintri was acquired by DataDirect Networks Inc. Mr. Klein, as well as other officers and directors of Tintri, are currently defendants in an ongoing class action lawsuit related to the foregoing.
We believe Mr. Klein’s leadership role and experience as an executive officer at a number of software companies and his extensive experience with sophisticated corporate transactions adds strong industry experience and management guidance to our board of directors.
Omid Tahernia will serve as a director following the completion of this offering. Mr. Tahernia is the founder and CEO of SERNAI Networks, Inc., a developer of high-speed communication and intelligence-based interconnect solutions since 2018. From 2012 to 2015, Mr. Tahernia served as the CEO of Ikanos Communications (Nasdaq: IKAN), which was acquired by Qualcomm in 2015. Prior to that, he was the President and CEO of Tilera Corporation from 2007 to 2011, and had spent more than 3 years with Xilinx, most recently as Corporate Vice President & General Manager of its Processing Solutions Group. Mr. Tahernia is a 20-year veteran with Motorola from 1984 to 2004, with the most recent leadership role being Vice President and Director, Strategy and Business Development at Motorola Semiconductors. He has an MSEE degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and a BSEE degree from Virginia Tech.
Mr. Tahernia’s extensive experience in managing and operating large global technology and software organizations and his industry network and connections makes him a valuable addition to our board of directors.
Ryan Benton will serve as a director following the completion of the offering. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Board Member of Revasum, Inc., a publicly listed semiconductor capital equipment company (“Revasum”), a position he has held since 2018. Since 2015, Mr. Benton also has served as an independent board member for Pivotal Systems, a publicly listed semiconductor component company, where he chairs the Audit & Risk Management Committee and serves as a member of the Remuneration & Nomination Committee. Prior to joining Revasum, from 2017 to 2018, Mr. Benton served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for BrainChip Holdings Ltd., a publicly listed AI software and chip solution provider and developer of neuromorphic circuits. From 2012 to 2017, Mr. Benton was at Exar Corporation, a fabless semiconductor chip manufacturer (“Exar”), as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In 2016, he became Chief Executive Officer and Executive Board Member until the sale of Exar to Maxlinear, Inc. in 2017. From 1993 to 2012, Mr. Benton worked at several technology companies. He started his career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen & Company in 1991. Mr. Benton received a B.A. of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and he passed the State of Texas Certified Public Accountancy exam.
Given his significant experience leading and managing various technology companies, his expansive network in the industry and his audit experience, we believe that Mr. Benton will be a valuable addition to our board of directors.
Raquel Chmielewski will serve as a director following the completion of this offering. She is currently Director of Investments at Council on Foreign Relations, a United States nonprofit and non-partisan think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. Prior to this, she was an Investment Officer at the pension of the International Monetary Fund, and a private markets investor at Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company from 2009 to 2017. Ms. Chmielewski was with Stark Investments as an Investment Analyst for a short period in 2008 and was a Private Equity/Venture Capital Associate at Columbia Capital, LLC from 2004 to 2007. Ms. Chmielewski received a B.A. and M.A. in Economics from Boston University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Chmielewski’s extensive investment experience will make her a valuable addition to our board of directors.