What does an Entegris employee look like? What do they do all day, and what do they like about their jobs? This blog is part of a series that will take a deep dive into a variety of careers at Entegris. We’ll highlight several employees and their valuable contributions to the organization. What do they do, how are they succeeding, and why do they think Entegris is a great place to work?  

What is your educational and employment background?

I have a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, and a doctorate, also in chemistry, from the University of Texas in Austin, TX. My employment started at Shipley, a photoresist company which is now part of DuPont. I went to work at IBM in the TJ Watson research center in New York. I later moved into development and held several different roles before becoming director of patterning R&D, which included lithography, etch, optical proximity correction, and metrology.

In 2015, IBM transferred their Microelectronics Division to GlobalFoundries, where I remained in patterning, but now as the senior director of manufacturing. There, we focused on 28 nm and 14 nm logic technology manufacturing. I subsequently took on the role of VP of Central Engineering, where we were responsible for productivity and cost saving, capacity planning, and capital investment management for GlobalFoundries’ six worldwide factories. Most recently, I started at Entegris in 2021, where I now work in the office of the CTO on projects related to lithography and sustainability.

What led you to become interested in working at Entegris?

I worked with a few folks from Entegris during a joint development program at IBM. I liked working with them and thought highly of their products. I also liked the location – I’m a Massachusetts native, so it’s nice to work close to Boston. Finally, I was impressed by my meeting with senior executives, who set a positive tone within the company culture.

Why did you move on to sustainability after doing so much work in patterning and lithography?

My manufacturing experience has given me a good perspective on sustainability. Manufacturing means balancing many different parameters and making fast decisions on quality, productivity, and cost. The growth of the semiconductor industry and the tremendous number of resources it requires put us in a position where things need to be done differently. Sustainability is a new axis of production that needs to be co-optimized and balanced along with the others.

Can you talk a little bit more about the responsibilities of your role?

I work in the CTO office, so my responsibility is to look out at the 3-5 year time horizon and find strategies that will position us well into the future. I focus on the innovation aspect of sustainability. This means getting sustainability built into new products – incorporating sustainability concepts from the beginning as opposed to implementing changes later. I also look at industry-wide solutions to learn from trends and insights.

What are some interesting sustainability projects you’re working on?

Right now, we’re developing a strategy around end-of-life for Entegris products. The goal is to provide our customers with a set of recommendations about what to do with our products when they’re done using them. Eventually, we’ll have a set of recommendations for every major product line as well as for the packaging in which we ship our products. Ideally, this will involve circularity – recycling, refurbishment, or reuse, wherever possible. In cases where circularity is impossible or impractical, we’d like to think about the least impactful method of disposal. 

This is very exciting work, and there are lots of interesting developments. Making progress on these issues means working across divisions, regions, and functions. We’re also heavily engaged with our customers, because they share many of the same goals we do.

We’ve recently strengthened some of our sustainability goals in our most recent Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report. How has that affected your work?

My responsibility in terms of CSR is to tie our innovation pillar to our sustainability goals. This includes a new goal that targets 100% of new product development contributing favorably to sustainability. We’ve even implemented sustainability metrics into our innovation management software and are now tracking it via phase gate reviews. For every new product or product update, the intent is to gauge impacts such as water usage, energy usage, sourcing, greenhouse gas emissions, renewables, and recyclables.

I also see that you teach engineering leadership at the Tufts Gordon Institute. How does your work at Entegris affect your curriculum and vice versa?

I teach two nights a week with Jennifer Braggin, one of our directors of technology, who’s been teaching much longer than I have. We each have ~25 students, and work in sync, so we lecture on the same material each class. Many of the topics we teach are applicable to Entegris. Leadership attributes come down to a few key traits such as trust, team building, communication, and giving and receiving feedback. We also spend a lot of time discussing engineering ethics and how to build ethical reasoning into decision making processes. My real-world experience in semiconductors and at Entegris gives much context that helps students who have never worked in the industry.

Have any of your students joined the company?

I’ve only been teaching for two semesters, but a few of Jennifer’s former students are now Entegris employees..

Given the existing success of our sustainability program, it seems likely that our goals will expand in the coming years. What changes do you anticipate?

I anticipate that reporting will become an increasingly important requirement and certainly a more common customer expectation. At some point, we may expand to reporting explicitly on the range of Scope 3 emissions. These are greenhouse gas emissions that include those from upstream sources, such as production and delivery of raw materials and downstream sources, such as the emissions from use of products by our customers, transportation of our products, employee travel, and more.

Finally, what do you like most about working at Entegris?

As I mentioned before, Entegris has a really good corporate culture. I like the people and the way they collaborate – I appreciate the lack of territorialism. There are a bunch of very smart people that are fun to work with and come from a variety of backgrounds from all across the world. It never gets dull!

Thanks to Dave for sharing this great information about his role at Entegris. Learn more about Entegris careers!