November 1, 2019

Dr. Avi Katz

Dr. Avi Katz, Founder, Chairman and CEO of GigCapital Global, has built a career spanning nearly 40 years across naval service, frontier research, entrepreneurship, and public markets. He began at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1988, spending six years at the forefront of applied science before moving into executive roles across high-tech private and public companies. In 2007 he founded GigOptix, a fabless semiconductor company, took it public on the NYSE in 2011 (NYSE: GIG), and grew it through ten strategic acquisitions before selling it in 2017 for $250 million to Integrated Device Technology — a company later acquired by Renesas for $6.7 billion.

Following that exit, Dr. Katz launched GigCapital Global, a Private-to-Public Equity platform using the SPAC methodology and his proprietary Mentor-Investor™ approach to bring high-potential late-stage companies to public markets. He has since deployed nine vehicles on Nasdaq and NYSE, attracting over $7.5 billion through IPO, deSPAC, and follow-on funding. He currently serves as CEO and Executive Chairman of GigCapital7 (Nasdaq: GIG), GigCapital8 (Nasdaq: GIW), GigCapital9 (Nasdaq: GIX), and Executive Chairman of Hadron Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: HDRN).

Dr. Katz is a graduate of the Israeli Naval Academy and holds both a B.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. He has authored more than 350 scientific and technical works, holds over 70 U.S. and international patents, and serves on the board of the New York Philharmonic.