
Craig H. Ensley
Board Member & CEO, Innovative Micro Technology (IMT)
Craig Ensley is a Board Member & CEO who brings expertise in Strategy, Finance, Product Management, & Operational Excellence to technology companies. His experience spans MEMS & Sensors, Semiconductors, Communications Networking (Optical, RF/Wireless, Wired), and Consumer Electronics.
Craig is a transformative executive who has led companies at every scale and phase of growth. He built two businesses from pre-revenue to $300-400M sales. He served as a top executive of a billion-dollar public company where he helped lead one of the largest turnarounds in semiconductor history. Most recently he has been the CEO or President of three venture- backed companies, which he successfully repositioned and drove significant revenue growth and created first profitability, and in each case delivered superior shareholder returns.
Craig helped lead M&A and integration of 5 acquisitions and has negotiated 5 divestitures. At least 10 leaders he hired and mentored have grown to become CEOs. Craig has raised ~$150M venture capital and >$600M from public equity markets. He served as the primary representative to shareholders, both buy-side and sell-side equity analysts, and investment bankers for a large public company.
From 2012-2019 as Board Member & CEO, Craig led IMT (Innovative Micro Technology). He repositioned a declining MEMS R&D/Prototyping services company to be a high-volume manufacturing firm growing ~20% annually. IMT became the largest MEMS & Sensor foundry in the U.S., and having 65%-70% of sales to global Tier-1 customers. He exited early investors by a sale to a private equity syndicate.
From 2009-2011 Mr. Ensley was Board Chairman & CEO of DisplayLink. He established a new vison to become a video enterprise networking firm and built a global company with sustained high growth, high margins, & profitability. He secured growth-equity financing from new & existing investors.
From 2006-2009 Craig was Board Member & President of Peregrine [NASDAQ: PSMI]. He repositioned the 15-year old niche satellite communications RF firm into a high-volume product company with renowned global brand leading the world’s transitions in 3G & 4G wireless. He grew the business from ~$6 million annual sales to profitability and an annualized revenue run-rate of ~$90 million. Peregrine IPO’ed in 2012.
From 1999-2005 as SVP he helped lead turnaround & restructuring of a public firm Cirrus Logic [NASDAQ: CRUS] from massive losses to profitability and growth. Cirrus previously lost >$430 million in 1998-99 with $1.5 billion debt. The team delivered 15% operating income and was debt-free with $225 million cash in 4 years. Craig was responsible for strategy, public company investor interface, engineering, marketing, and subsequently was GM with full P&L.
From 1986-1998 Craig helped start a venture-backed firm, Crystal Semiconductor, and grew revenue from $0 to ~$400 million. He began as VP for strategy, product definition & management, and marketing. He subsequently was GM with full P&L. Crystal was the world’s highest growth analog & mixed signal DSP company from 1991-1995.
Craig began his executive career leading strategy, product definition & management, and marketing to create and grow the communications semiconductor business of Rockwell International from $0 to >> $250 million revenue. The firm achieved highly profitable dominant worldwide brand and market share.
He brings extensive international experience building sales channels, partnerships, design centers, and manufacturing. His companies have ranged from 35% – 70% non-U.S. revenue. He established and managed software and hardware development teams in the U.S., China, England, Poland, India, Czech Republic, plus a joint venture in Singapore. He created and managed internal and external production in the U.S., Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, & Malaysia.
Craig served on the Boards of Directors of the KLRU Austin PBS Television Station (2002-2008), and the Consumer Electronics Association Audio Division and Home Networking Division (2000-2005).
Mr. Ensley has an MBA from Stanford University. He also has a BS in Applied Physics and a BA in Economics, both from the University of California at San Diego.