indie, an Autotech semiconductor and software innovator which is currently in the process of becoming a public company through a planned merger with Thunder Bridge Acquisition II (Nasdaq: THBR), a special purpose acquisition company, today announced that the Company has appointed David J. Aldrich to its board of directors. Aldrich currently serves as chairman of the board of Skyworks Solutions, Inc., a leading supplier of high-performance mobile communications solutions. He was Skyworks’ executive chairman from May 2016 to May 2018. Prior to his appointment as executive chairman, Aldrich served as Skyworks’ chief executive officer, a position he held since 2002, when the company was created via a merger between Alpha Industries and Conexant Systems’ wireless business. Before the creation of Skyworks, Aldrich was president and CEO of Alpha Industries beginning in 2000. He joined Alpha Industries in 1995 as vice president and chief financial officer and held various management positions in the ensuing years, including president and chief operating officer. Prior to Alpha, he held senior management positions at Adams-Russell and M/A-COM.
“indie is delighted to welcome Dave Aldrich to our board of directors,” said Donald McClymont, indie’s co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer. “Dave is an industry veteran with extensive experience and a proven track record of success in organically growing businesses, consolidating via M&A and creating extraordinary shareholder value. His background will be invaluable to us as indie transitions to a publicly traded company and capitalizes on the enormous Autotech market opportunity.”
“I am excited to be joining indie’s board of directors at this pivotal time,” said Aldrich. “The automotive market has reached an inflection point with vehicle manufacturers requiring increased levels of semiconductor content to support advanced safety applications. I look forward to leveraging my experience to help the indie team accelerate its ambitious business plans.”
Aldrich received a bachelor’s of arts in political science from Providence College in 1979 and a master’s in business administration from the University of Rhode Island in 1981. In 2004, he was named Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year in the Semiconductor category. In 2014, he was named CEO of the Year by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. Aldrich is also a board member of Belden, a publicly traded provider of end-to-end signal transmission solutions, and Acacia Communications, a publicly traded provider of high-speed coherent optical interconnect products.
Aldrich joins independent directors Peter J. Kight and Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann. Kight serves as a senior special advisor to Thunder Bridge Acquisition II and is chairman of the board of Repay, an omnichannel payments technology provider. He was the founder, chairman and CEO of CheckFree, a provider of financial services technology, from 1981 until it was acquired by Fiserv in 2007. He also served as director and vice chairman (2007 to 2010) of Fiserv until 2012. Previously, Kight was co-chairman, managing partner and senior advisor at Comvest Partners. He is a board member of Bill.com Holdings, Inc., a provider of software that digitizes and automates back-office financial operations. Kight holds more than a dozen patents and publications for electronic banking and payment systems.
Neumann was previously chairman of the board and president at Opel, served as executive vice president and president of Europe for General Motors and was a member of GM’s Executive Committee. Neumann was also with Volkswagen AG, where he was CEO and vice president of Volkswagen Group China in Beijing. Prior to that, he held a number of management positions at Volkswagen, including head of research and director of Electronics Strategy. Neumann was also a member of the executive board at Continental AG responsible for the Automotive Systems Division. From 2008 to 2009, he was chairman of the executive board of Continental AG and later returned to Volkswagen AG with company-wide responsibility for electric propulsion.