UA ENGINEERING ALUMNUS SELECTED AS A MEMBER OF THE "ELITE 100" BY UPSIDE MAGAZINE

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Kirk Pond, president, CEO and chairman of the board of Fairchild Semiconductor International, has been selected by Upside magazine as an "Elite 100."

The list is comprised of 100 members determined by the magazine to be the country's most powerful and influential business leaders in technology, business, finance and industry. The Fort Smith native received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the U of A in 1966.

Other leaders in the "Elite 100" listing include Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft; Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer; Martha Stewart, chairman and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; and Michael Armstrong, chairman and CEO of AT&T.

Pond is considered an industry visionary. One of the longest-tenured and most respected leaders in the semiconductor field, he led the industry's first management led leveraged buy-out in 1997, establishing Fairchild as an independent company. He also developed the new multi-market semiconductor business model, a move many industry analysts said would not work. Today, Fairchild is the leading global supplier of high performance broad-based power components that are crucial to managing, distributing and conditioning power in today's electronics.

Pond and his wife, Nancy, are long-time supporters of the U of A. He is a member of the Arkansas Academy of Electrical Engineering and serves on the Engineering Advisory Council and the College of Engineering Campaign for the Twenty-First Century committee.

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Mary-Ann Bloss, College of Engineering director of publications, (479) 575-6016, mab4@engr.uark.edu