Meta Materials Inc. announced the appointment of Mr. Jack Harding as Chair of the Board of Directors, effective August 16, 2022. Mr. Ram Ramkumar, META's current Chair, is retiring from the Board and moving into a Strategic Advisor role for a period of two years. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Ramkumar for his dedication during this transformative period which included among many milestones META's June 2021 listing on the NASDAQ via a reverse merger with Torchlight Energy Resources. Mr. Harding is currently the managing partner at Harding Partners LP, a business consultancy for public and private companies. He is a frequent international speaker on the topics of innovation, entrepreneurship and semiconductor trends and policies. Mr. Harding currently serves on the Board of Directors of Qorvo Inc. As former director at RF Micro Devices, he helped to engineer the merger with TriQuint Semiconductor to form Qorvo, which now enjoys a leadership position in high energy RF electronics and a $11 billion market cap. Mr. Harding is highly connected in the
technology ecosystem, having served on the board of the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) for over 16 years. He was on the board of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) as the company began its transformation into an industry leader. Mr. Harding was the CEO and co-founder of eSilicon Corporation, an ASIC and IP supplier that was acquired by Inphi Corporation. Prior to co-founding eSilicon, he was the President and CEO of Cadence Design Systems. Mr. Harding entered Cadence upon the acquisition of Cooper & Chyan Technology (CCT), where he served as the President and CEO, and was responsible for leading the company to an IPO. Prior to CCT, Mr. Harding served as the Executive Vice President of Zycad Corporation. Mr. Harding began his career with distinction at IBM. Mr. Harding maintains a balanced career, providing his services to industry, academia, and government. He has held leadership roles at Drew University and Indiana University where he was Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and a member of IU's premier School of Public and Environmental Affairs advisory board, respectively. In the public policy arena, Mr. Harding has served as a member of the prestigious Steering Committee at the U.S. Council on Competitiveness and was a former National Academies' Committee member for Software, Growth and the Future of the U.S. Economy.