ECE Academy

President and CEO, Primarion
Torrance, California

Ron Van Dell graduated with a B.S.E.E. degree from Michigan Tech with honors in 1979. His education continued throughout his career, taking company sponsored courses at General Electric; programs related to International Business at INSTEAD (France), University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and Oxford University.

Ron started his career with General Electric in 1979 as a Member of Technical Staff, advancing in GE to Manager, GE/IBM Strategic Alliance in 1987. He twice received Key Technologist awards from General Electric. In 1988 he joined Square D Company in Raleigh, NC as Director, Sensor Operations, a new venture by Square D to establish a solid-state position sensor business. In 1990 he became Managing Director, Europe for Square D in London, England, with responsibility for organizations in 8 countries. He joined Groupe Schneider in Paris France in 1992 as Vice President, Market Development.

In 1995 he took the position of Vice President General Manager, Worldwide Marketing and Sales with Harris Corporation, in Melbourne, Florida; becoming Vice President - General Manager, Communications Products Business in 1995. He was responsible for the management of wireless, telecommunications and signal processing products. Under his leadership, the IEEE 802.11b standard was established and Harris' PRISM chipsets gained a dominant position within the high-speed wireless LAN marketplace. Mr. Van Dell then went to Dell Computer in 1999 where he was general manager of their Dimension Business with sales of $6B.

In 2001, Ron became President and CEO of Legerity, a privately-held semiconductor company with about $100M in annual sales. During Ron's tenure, the company became the world leader in wireline voice telephony and was positioned as the top chipset supplier for VoIP.

In 2004, Ron became President and CEO of Primarion, a start-up semiconductor company focused on digital power management solutions.

Mr. Van Dell currently serves on several boards, including Tech's College of Engineering Industrial Advisory Board. Ron Van Dell met his wife of 26 years, Lori '79, at Michigan Tech.