James Doran is Spansion's executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO). With more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, Doran is a seasoned executive with leadership experience in developing and managing global operations for high-growth companies. He currently is focusing his expertise on the development of next-generation technologies and products and their ramp to production at SP1, the world’s first 300mm NOR Flash memory wafer fab. Prior to serving as COO, Doran was executive vice president of Spansion, responsible for global manufacturing, technology development, logistics, IT, procurement and quality. Doran transitioned to Spansion from AMD in 2004 after having served in various capacities for more than 15 years. He began his lengthy AMD career as director of the Submicron Development Center (SDC) when the facility was first beginning construction. Under his direction and influence, the SDC introduced several submicron process technologies and developed into a major revenue-producing facility. His efforts as director of the SDC helped to establish AMD as a recognized leader in its category and led to numerous promotions thereafter, including vice president of AMD's Fab 25, vice president and general manager of AMD's Saxony GmbH in Dresden, Germany and group vice president of AMD's Worldwide Technology Development and Manufacturing. Prior to joining AMD, Doran was vice president of operations for Paradigm Semiconductor and a fab manager at Intel Corporation. Doran holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Northwestern University and a master's degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin.