The volatile semiconductor industry has seen an uptick as the global economy recovers, and San Diego–based Entropic (News - Alert) is making strategic personnel changes as the company expands its presence in the connected home entertainment market.

The company announced Vahid Manian will fill the position of senior vice president of global engineering and operations. Manian assumes responsibility for Entropic's global engineering and operations organizations, which includes everything from hardware and software product development, technical operations, quality and supply management.

Manian joined Entropic in 2012, formerly as the senior vice president of global operations. In his previous role, he worked on reducing the company’s manufacturing costs and long-range capacity strategies. Manian also helped Entropic move to the 28nm low-power process technology, a key component of low standby power applications such as cellular baseband.

"During his time with Entropic, Vahid's leadership has driven us to explore and implement forward-thinking methodologies and technologies that have strengthened the company," said Patrick Henry, president and CEO of Entropic. “In his new role, Vahid will have the opportunity to make an even greater impact and set the course for the future of Entropic's global engineering and operations teams.”

The company also announced Michael Farese will assume the role of chief technology officer. In this new role, Farese will guide the company’s technology and platform architecture roadmaps, as well as improve collaboration with academic and industry standards. Farese has been with Entropic since 2010, previously holding the position of senior vice president of global engineering.

"Mike was critical in the Company's transition from a connectivity-only company to a more robust platform semiconductor company,” Henry said. “As CTO, Mike's vision and engineering insight will help Entropic focus on core technology innovation and industry standards activities that address the changing connected home entertainment market."

Farese’s technical background includes the development of the industry's first multimedia over coax alliance (MoCA) 2.0 system solution, the industry's first digital channel stacking switch, Entropic's first integrated system-on-a-chip and MoCA 2.0 product. His software is responsible for key innovations such as Entropic's Open RDK (reference design kit) platform.

Manian and Farese assume their new positions effective immediately and will continue to report to the CEO.