Cree (Durham, NC), a maker of LED lighting, announced that Steve Kelley will join the company as executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective today. In the newly created position, Kelley will be responsible for business development, global manufacturing, technology, and administrative operations of the company.
Kelley comes to Cree after five years at Texas Instruments where he served as vice president and general manager of the Standard Linear and Logic Group. Prior to that, Kelley spent 10 years at Philips Semiconductors in various management positions.
Cree develops and manufactures LEDs at all stages, including LED chips, LED components, and LED lighting fixtures. Its specialty is blue, green, and UV-emitting LEDs based on gallium nitride technology. The company has a large research contingent, and presents at leading technical conferences. Lighting fixtures developed by Cree are the sort that, if used widely, would save large amounts of energy: for example, its LR6 downlight requires 12 watts of power but emits as much light as a 65 watt incandescent fixture.