AEM appoints chief technology officer

INDUSTRY veteran Samer Kabbani, 46, will join AEM Holdings as chief technology officer on Tuesday.

The mainboard-listed firm, which provides advanced chip-testing solutions, said in a bourse filing on Monday that Mr Kabbani will lead the development and organisation of AEM's overall technology strategy.

He will work closely with the chief executive officer (CEO) to implement the company's strategic objective and technological advancement.

CEO Chandran Nair said the appointment comes as AEM is accelerating its growth and delivering application-specific solutions.

Mr Kabbani has more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor capital equipment industry.

He has led technology mergers and acquisitions, innovation and product development, business strategies development and implementation, and competitive strategy.

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Before joining AEM, he served as executive vice-president at chip-making equipment supplier Advantest and Astronics Test Systems, which offers automatic test solutions to electronics manufacturers.

Based in the US, Mr Kabbani had spent 14 years at Nasdaq-listed Cohu, which provides equipment and services for back-end semiconductor manufacturing, where he held senior management roles.

He said he sees a "tremendous" opportunity for AEM to make a valuable contribution in semiconductor testing.

Mr Kabbani's appointment comes about two months after AEM named Leong Sook Han as its chief financial officer.

AEM shares rose S$0.05 or 1.3 per cent to close at S$4.05 on Friday.