About the Founders
The three founders of the company bring over a century of Microwave product design experience from MMICs to complex RF subsystems primarily in the Defense, Hi-Rel, and Telecommunication markets.
Jack A. Giles is a Founder of ENGIN-IC and has been with the company since October 2014; he serves as Chairman and CEO. Jack spent approximately 19 years with Texas Instruments in Dallas in military system design engineering, aircraft sensor system integration, program management, and marketing liaison with the D.O.D. in Washington D.C. While located in Washington, D.C., Mr. Giles participated on committees at the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) for improvements of advanced military airborne sensor systems. Jack joined REMEC, Inc in 1984 and held various senior management positions, starting as Vice President and General Manager and eventually became President and CEO of REMEC’s Defense and Space group. REMEC Defense and Space employed over 1100 employees with operations in two states and also included a manufacturing plant located in Tijuana, Mexico, with over 150 employees that he started in the 1990’s. He served as a member of the Board of Directors for REMEC, Inc, a public U.S corporation, for over fifteen years. After the acquisition of REMEC D&S by Cobham, plc, Jack served as President of the Advanced Programs and Technology for the Sensor Systems Group. Jack’s formal education includes a B.S. degree in engineering from the University of Arkansas with engineering management studies at SMU in Dallas, Texas. He is also a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College (DMSC), Ft. Belvoir, Virginia.
Chris Ison is a Founder of ENGIN-IC and has been with the company since October 2014; he serves as President and COO. Chris has more than 25 years of experience in the Defense and Space RF-MW industry. He joined REMEC Defense and Space in 1987 and worked there for 27 years in position of increasing responsibility. Starting as a design engineer, Chris eventually became Director of Engineering, Vice President of Advanced Development, and General Manager. Over this period, the company grew from a small business with $30M in revenue to a large business with over 1000 employees. In these positions, Chris developed microwave architectures and modules that supported many advanced Radar, Electronic Warfare (EW), and Communication systems, including Integrated Microwave Assemblies and RF Subsystems for the F-35, F-18, F22, F-16, Global Hawk, AARGM, AMRAAM, and RC-135 Platforms. Products ranged from wideband receivers, complex phased arrays, to entire RF front-end subsystems. In addition, Chris served as the General Manager for REMEC Defense and Space’s MMIC operation in Richardson, Texas for ten years and was instrumental in growing the business through the integration of advanced MMIC technology into higher level microwave modules. Chris graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with a BSEE degree in 1987
Stephen R. Nelson is a Founder of ENGIN-IC and has been with the company since October 2014; he serves as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Steve joined Texas Instruments in 1979, focusing on the design of GaAs transistors and MMICs for military applications in radar, EW, and communications systems with the design of HBT RFICs and power amplifiers for cell phones and radios. He was the external foundry manager and engineering manager for TI’s Microwave GaAs Products (MGP). Key accomplishments included the first GaAs MMICs inserted into U.S. military hardware systems including the HARM missile. In addition, he was responsible for the first wideband 0.5-W and 1-W wideband GaAs power amplifiers for EW platforms and decoys, and insertion of custom MMICs into a wide range of NASA / JPL probes, and military satellites. By 1997 more than 70% of the world’s communication satellites contained TI GaAs MMICs from Steve’s GaAs operations. Steve joined REMEC in 2000, and was VP, IC Design for the Defense and Space group for 14 years managing and designing MMIC’s for both military and commercial systems. Steve and his team developed wideband time delay MMICs and wideband transmit/receive MMICs for the Air Force and many SIGINT / EW platforms, as well as radar MMICs for various military programs. Steve is proficient in design for many foundry processes including GaAs, GaN, SiC, InP, and BiCMOS. Steve has 10 patents and has authored / coauthored more than 60 technical papers for technical symposiums including MTT and GOMAC. He graduated from the University of Missouri – Rolla in 1977 (BSEE) and attended graduate school at Rolla and UT-Dallas.