George Minassian
Dr. George Minassian has been a co-founder and CEO of Crossbar since 2010. A seasoned veteran of the semiconductor memory industry, Dr. Minassian brings Crossbar 25 years of experience in systems, logic design, new business development, and product development. Over his extensive career, Dr. Minassian has a proven track record of developing commercially successful, leading-edge products.
From 2002 to 2010, Dr. Minassian held a variety of positions at Spansion, a leading innovator of Flash memory solutions, most recently as vice president of System and Software Engineering where he led the $1.2 billion Flash Memory business targeting the cellular wireless market segment. While at Spansion, he developed and established new industry standards in emerging technologies such as PISMO and achieved a successful track record for large-scale product development and management. From 1999-2002, Dr. Minassian was director of Wireless Engineering at Advanced Micro Devices, a microprocessor leader, where he developed the industry’s first CMOS RF process and complete 802.11b/a chipset and reference designs. Dr. Minassian holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sylvain DuBois
Sylvain Dubois joined the Crossbar management team in 2013 as Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Business Development. With over 17 years of semiconductor experience in business development and strategic product marketing, he brings a proven ability to analyze market trends, identify new, profitable business opportunities and create precise product positioning that is in perfect sync with market demands to drive market share leadership and business results.
Prior to joining Crossbar, Mr. Dubois led strategic product positioning and market engagement for developing new products at Spansion. Responsible for identifying new growth opportunities and expanding the product portfolio, Mr. Dubois was instrumental in defining the Spansion Flash memory product roadmap.
From 2002-2006, Mr. Dubois was a System-on-Chip architect of OMAP application processors at Texas Instruments. Mr. Dubois was in charge of the architecture and technology roadmap of DRAM and Flash memory controllers, and developed strategic relationships with major DRAM and Flash memory suppliers.
Sylvain Dubois holds a Master of Science in Microelectronics from E.S.I.E.E. (Paris), University of Southampton (UK) and Universidad Pontifica Comillas (Spain).
Paul Brasnett
Matt Evans
Matt currently serves as Vice President of Business Development for Implus, an innovative leader in the fitness category with brands such as SKLZ, TriggerPoint, Harbinger, RockTape, and Balega. In this role, he manages the company’s mergers and acquisitions, along with related integrations, and also oversees Implus’ international operations in Australia, Canada, and Latin America.
Prior to joining Implus, Matt ran mergers and acquisitions for Driven Brands, a portfolio of automotive aftermarket service centers with locations throughout North America. Before Driven Brands, he was part of the Consumer Group of Robert W. Baird, an investment bank with a focus on Active Lifestyle and Fitness brands.
Matt has a BS in Business Administration with a Concentration in Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and resides in the Raleigh-Durham area.
Shari Castelli
Shari Castelli has a deep understanding of the fitness market, having spent the past five years supporting boutique studios and gyms as the Director of National Accounts at ClassPass. In this role, Shari consulted with studios of all sizes to implement yield management systems that optimize revenue, and drive more business to each studio. Due to the massive impact Shari made on studios, she was promoted to Director of Partner Expansion, where she has spearheaded the ClassPass Empowerment Program. This initiative offers in depth regional analysis and expansion plan support for eligible studios. The program has already helped 35 fitness partners to develop launch and expansion plans throughout the US and UK. Shari also has firsthand studio experience from her time as a boutique fitness instructor, where she taught at As One Fitness in New York City and earned her Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. Shari holds a B.A. from New York University and currently resides in Orange County, California.
Nicole Wolfe
Nicole Wolfe is Head of Corporate Programs at ClassPass, the leading global fitness membership. Her mission is to work with businesses of every size to design the most cost-effective, customizable and employee-centric wellness program available in the market. For more than a decade, Nicole has been a passionate advocate for the needs of employees, working to shift the corporate wellness landscape from calorie counting to comprehensive programs that truly reward health behaviors such as workouts, meditation and self-care. She previously built wellness initiatives with Kaiser Permanente, Global Corporate Challenge and TRX training, and consulted with Fortune 500 companies to design impactful wellness offers that increased productivity. As an expert on corporate wellness, Nicole was also invited to offer her insight on Fast Company’s Productivity Confidential podcast. She has an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Babson College and an undergraduate degree in Journalism from Boston University. Nicole lives with her husband in San Francisco.
Adam and Ryan Goldston
Athletic Propulsion Labs was founded in March 2009, by then 23 year-old identical twins Adam and Ryan Goldston. As former two sport collegiate athletes, playing both basketball and football at the University of Southern California, Adam and Ryan envisioned creating a company providing revolutionary products symbolizing the ultimate intersection of design and performance.
Today, Adam and Ryan Goldston are recognized as accomplished inventors with numerous U.S. and foreign patents including U.S. utility patents 8,112,905, 8,347,526, 8,495,825, 8,621,766 and 8,732,983 where they are named inventors for the company’s revolutionary Load ‘N Launch® Technology. With the launch of their inaugural shoe in June 2010, the Concept 1 basketball shoe, they became the creators of the first shoe proven to instantly make you jump higher due to APL’s revolutionary 8-spring Load ‘N Launch Technology in the forefoot. As a result, the Concept 1 became the first shoe banned in the NBA’s 64-year history for performance reasons for “providing an undue competitive advantage.”
Following the success and media attention generated by the APL Concept 1 basketball shoe, the company quickly adopted the “Banned by the NBA” tagline to augment its original “Stop Dreaming. Jump Higher.” A new 6-spring running version of the patented Load ‘N Launch Technology designed to instantly provide a heightened level of running performance with less effort, was launched in June of 2014 along with the company’s new Propelium midsole technology for running. More recently APL successfully entered the active wear market with a variety of highly touted products that seamlessly mix technology and style.
Co-Founders Adam and Ryan have been honored at the White House as part of the Empact 100 which recognizes the Top 100 Entrepreneurs age 35 and under in the U.S. Athletic Propulsion Labs was also recently named as “One of the Five Best New Sportswear Brands in the World” by ISPO, the international sporting goods organization in addition to being named to the 2015 Game Changers List by Men’s Fitness. Most recently, Adam and Ryan were selected to the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2016 in the Retail & Ecommerce category. This list recognizes America’s top young entrepreneurs and game changers representing the countries future and present leaders.