About Us

Founded in 1998, we have consulted for venture capitalists, M&A organizations and turnaround situations. We have also developed growth strategies for small, medium and large-sized companies involving new markets, new technologies and acquisitions.

Clients have included Fortune 500 companies such as KLA-Tencor, small companies such as Ion Systems, private companies such as Overland Data, start-ups such as ByteShield, law firms such as Alban Tay Mahtani & de Silva of Singapore, venture capital firms such as SBV Venture Partners, and M & A organizations such as KLA-Tencor’s

We have served clients in such areas as

    * Wireless sensor networks                                         * Semiconductor processing equipment
    * Semiconductor handling equipment                        * Long-life phosphors
    * Cleanroom equipment                                                * Computer backup devices
    * Solid state lasers                                                         * Video games
    * Computer operating systems
 

Strategia currently focuses on start-ups, venture capitalists and angels. We have evaluated over 150 start-up business plans and executive summaries. We provide start-ups with the necessary tools for seeking funding and we provide investors with qualified deal flow.

About the President

Dr. Patterson is the President of Strategia and his consulting is strengthened by his extensive management and executive experience in a variety of industries. His experience encompasses a broad array of businesses, markets and technology areas

He is additionally the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Bay Area Entrepreneurs Workshop, an entrepreneurial training organization. www.baeworkshop.com

Prior to founding Strategia, Ralph worked in a diverse set of senior management positions:

• Founding CEO of Headway, a start-up manufacturer of thin film heads for disk drives, that became cash-flow positive 11 months after inception and recorded $1M/month in revenue in 13 months
•  Senior Vice President of Read-Rite, manufacturer of thin film heads for disk drives, where he led its transition to a new technology, re-structured R&D, improved yields by 20 percentage points, and helped it reach $1B in annual revenue
• Board member of RR-SMI, a Japanese joint venture
• Vice president of Asyst, a manufacturer of automated semiconductor wafer-handling equipment, where he led business development effort into a new business to sustain growth
• Group R&D manager at Hewlett-Packard, where he led the development and initial production of HP’s ink cartridges, taking them up the steepest manufacturing ramp of any product in HP’s history
• Product line manager at Hewlett-Packard where he had P&L responsibility and grew the ink-jet media business 10-fold, to $100M, and increased its profitability by 30 percentage points, in four years

Education and honors:

• BSEE, MSEE, DSc. from Washington University, St. Louis
• Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi
• General Chairman, International Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Washington, DC
• Program Chairman, Intermag, various locations
• Reviews Editor for the IEEE Transaction on Magnetics, 1981-1989