Chuck Hong
Netlist, Inc.
Chun K. (Chuck) Hong is chairman and chief executive officer of Netlist, Inc., a NASDAQ–listed (NLST) semiconductor company which he co-founded in 2000, and took public in 2006. Netlist is a leading provider of high performance semiconductor technology for servers and storage systems, with operations in Irvine, California and Suzhou, China. The company supplies its cutting-edge hardware and software solutions to world-class IT customers such as IBM, HP and Dell, and has amassed the industry’s largest portfolio of intellectual property in “Load-reduced Memory” and “Hybrid Memory,” technologies critical to the growing big data and cloud computing infrastructures.
Prior to founding Netlist, Mr. Hong served as president of Infinilink Corp., a communications software company and as executive vice president of Viking Components, Inc., a memory products manufacturer, both based in Orange County, California. He began his career with LG Electronics in Seoul, Korea and over a 15-year period, held various management positions at LG Electronics and LG Semicon, both in Korea and in the U.S.
Mr. Hong received his BS in economics from Virginia Commonwealth University, which he attended on a NCAA Div. 1 athletic scholarship. He received an MS in Technology Management from Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business, and studied at the George Washington University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Hong’s experiences outside of technology include directorship at BBCN Bank, advisory work for past Irvine mayors and the Irvine Chamber of Commerce and participation in the University of California Irvine’s CEO Roundtable.