Vice President, Global Technology Scouting & Technology Transformation, Merck KGaA / EMD Electronics
Dr. Steven Johnston holds dual roles at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany / EMD Electronics as Vice President, Head of Technology Transformation and Enablement in the Electronics business unit and Vice President, Head of Global Technology Scouting in the Corporate Science and Technology organization. He heads Merck KGaA’s corporate global technology scouting organization that is responsible for identifying and enabling new technologies and products for business growth. In 2022, Dr. Johnston founded and is leading Merck KGaA’s Bioconvergence program that brings together technologies from Merck KGaA’s Electronics, Life Science and Healthcare business sectors for disruptive product innovation. He is a member of Merck KGaA’s Electronics Technology Leadership Board that oversees innovations in both the semiconductor and optronics technology areas as well as Merck KGaA’s venture capital electronics investment executive committee for ecosystem investments.
Previously Dr. Johnston was at Intel Corporation for 21 years where he was Senior Director of Supplier Technology and Industry Development. In this role, he was responsible for managing Intel’s research and early development supply chain programs with equipment, material, component, and EDA supply chain companies, worldwide consortia, global government funding agencies for new process technology development, and Intel’s process technology and manufacturing strategic market research. Dr. Johnston also oversaw Intel’s global supply chain IP and collaboration processes and executive alignment of Intel’s silicon technology roadmap with peer memory and foundry manufacturers. Additionally, Dr. Johnston was responsible for connecting Intel’s technology and manufacturing supply chain roadmaps to Semiconductor Industry Association, SEMI, and related semiconductor industry ecosystem engagements.
Dr. Johnston is a member of the SEMI Board of Industry Leaders, SEMI CTO committee, SIA CTO committee, SEMA Smart Data-AI advisory council, SEMI Smart MedTech governing council, co-chairs SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium, PhRMA New Approach Methodologies committee, EvoNexus startup incubator technology selection committee and sits on the IIT-Madras silicon photonics and University of Florida ChemE advisory boards. He previously served for several years on the SEMATECH and G450C Board of Directors and IMEC’s executive advisory council on behalf of Intel Corporation, was a founding member of the SIA/SRC Semiconductor Research Vision initiative and served as an industry advisory board member of the IEEE Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing conference. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida, holds 17 patents and has authored >60 publications/presentations.
