George Barber

Venture Partner

George brings to Trailblazer Capital years of experience as a global business and technology executive with a track record of leading and growing both entrepreneurial companies and Fortune 500 business units.

Mr. Barber was most recently Chairman, CEO and President of Vapro, Inc an innovator of patented two-phase cooling solutions for the electronics industry. The company has since received strategic funding and as a result was relocated to Korea. During his tenure at Vapro, George was able to secure crucial venture capital financing allowing the company to progress critical strategic partner projects, server customer design-ins and volume start-up and quality manufacturing milestones.

Prior to Vapro, Mr. Barber was President and CEO of SyChip-Murata, a wholly owned subsidiary of Murat Manufacturing Corporation of Japan. Murata acquired SyChip, Inc in April 2006. Prior to the Company's acquisition, George was recruited to the venture capital backed start-up (a Bell Labs spinout) in 2001 as President and CEO. The wireless Plug-N-Play company designed, developed and marketed Radio Frequency Chip Scale modules, Systems In Package solutions, software and integrated circuits for the portable device market. SyChip was an innovator in the smartphone revolution.

In 2003, SyChip was recognized by the Fabless Semiconductor Association as "Start-up to Watch", in addition to being named as an "Investor's Choice" award winner by VentureWire (published by Dow Jones) at its annual MicroVenture Private Equity Conference. In 2004, the company received a "Most Promising Company" award at the Semiconductor Venture Fair and was recognized with the "Emerging Company Horizon Award 2004" by the Metroplex Technology Business Council. In addition, the company received "Rising Star" and "Fast 50" net revenue growth awards from Deloitte LLP. In 2004 Mr. Barber was recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year nominee and 2003 was a Metroplex Technology Business Council Tech Titan Emerging Company CEO finalist. George led the company in raising nearly $50 million of venture funding.

Prior to joining SyChip, George spent 21 years in various capacities at Texas Instruments (TI), with his most recent positions as President/Sr. Executive for two bay area based wholly owned subsidiaries that he led the acquisition of totaling $695 million; Amati Communications and Alantro Communications. In addition, he held the title of Vice president and General Manager of the Worldwide Broadband Access business unit. Based on these acquisitions and the efficient integration into TI; TI quickly established itself as one of the industry leaders in both the emerging Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) markets. George also led TI's Worldwide Computer Processor and Applications Specific IC divisions where he helped pioneer Systems-On-Chip (SoC) design. Mr. Barber also held a position on the Advisory Board of TI Ventures. Prior to that, George spent several years living in Taiwan; where he was Vice president of Texas Instruments Asia and helped establish TI as a strategic IC supplier to China.

George serves on the University of Texas at Dallas: Advisory Board Fusion Program and the University of Dayton, School of Engineering: Advisory Board. Formerly, George served on the Executive Committee of the Metroplex Technology Business Council and the Board of Directors for Texchange.

Mr. Barber received a BS degree in Mathematics from the University of Dayton.