Management Team

Mr. Seraphin is President & Chief Executive Officer. With over 30 years of experience managing global businesses, Mr. Seraphin brings the overall vision and leadership necessary to drive future growth for the company. Prior to this role, from October 2015 to June 2018, Mr. Seraphin was the senior vice president and general manager of the Memory and Interface Division, leading the development of the company’s innovative memory architectures and high-speed serial link solutions. From October 2013 to June 2014, Mr. Seraphin also served as the vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations where he oversaw sales, business development, customer support and operations across the various business units within Rambus. In June 2014, Mr. Seraphin was promoted to senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations. Mr. Seraphin started his career in 1985 as a field application engineer at NEC and later joined AT&T Bell Labs, which became Lucent Technologies and Agere Systems (now Broadcom Inc.). During his 18 years at Agere, Mr. Seraphin held several senior positions in sales, marketing and general management, culminating in his last position as executive vice president and general manager of the Wireless Business Unit. Following this, Mr. Seraphin held the position of general manager of a GPS startup company in Switzerland and was vice president of Worldwide Sales and Support at Sequans Communications. During his career, Mr. Seraphin has advised and supported companies in both the product and IP markets. Mr. Seraphin holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Ecole Superieure de Chimie, Physique, Electronique, based in Lyon, France where he majored in Computer Architecture.

Mr. Seraphin also holds an M.B.A from the University of Hartford and has completed the senior executive program of Columbia University. In September 2021, Mr. Seraphin attended the Directors Consortium, a course offered at Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program.

Cliff Burnette is the senior vice president and chief human resources officer (CHRO) of Rambus. Cliff joined the company in 2019 and brings over 20 years of experience leading global human resources (HR) operations for publicly traded companies. He is responsible for human resources, corporate strategy and Rambus’ collaborative culture. Cliff has expertise in employee relations, organizational development along with extensive compensation strategy. Before coming to Rambus, Cliff was at Cypress Semiconductor, where he was the vice president of human resources leading HR, culture awareness and transformation, learning and development and post-merger employee integration. Prior to Cypress Semiconductor, Cliff was the director of North America human resources at Ottobock and held various roles at Spansion, Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Cliff has a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Marketing from Texas State University and a master’s degree in Human Resources Management and Organization Development from The University of Texas at Austin.

I Nong Chao is Vice President, IC Operations for Rambus, where she is responsible for the end-to-end product operations, including global supply chain, procurement, quality, program management, product test engineering and reliability. She drives the vision and mission to elevate the organization and positions the company for success through strategic partnerships with suppliers. 

I Nong has a proven track record with more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Prior to joining to Rambus in 2022, she held positions at Micron, GlobalFoundries and TSMC with responsibilities ranging from planning and manufacturing to pricing and procurement.

I Nong earned a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Industrial Engineering from Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan. She continued her Executive Management education at University of California, Berkeley.

Kendra De Berti is Vice President, Corporate Marketing where she is responsible for marketing and communication strategy, public relations, events and demand generation. Prior to this role, Kendra was Vice President, Solutions Marketing, responsible for leading integrated marketing campaigns to promote Rambus products across the company. Kendra also held positions in Product Marketing, Business Development, Sales and Sales Engineering.

Kendra began her career as inside sales at Thales Navigation, and later joined Rambus as a Sales Engineer in 2003. During her almost 20 years at Rambus, Kendra has extensive experience in sales and marketing strategy and execution for a broad range of products throughout the Company’s history.

Kendra holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University.

Sean Fan is Chief Operating Officer for Rambus. Before joining Rambus, Sean served as a corporate vice president and general manager at Renesas Electronics, in charge of the datacenter business unit with full P&L responsibilities. Previously, Sean held various senior executive positions at Integrated Device Technology Inc. (IDT) for over 19 years, prior to its acquisition by Renesas in March 2019.  He was instrumental in creating and growing several industry-leading businesses such as memory interface, timing, power management, smart metering, and telecom/networking products. Before joining IDT, he worked at Lucent Microelectronics, Mitel Semiconductor, and National Lab of Telecom in China in mostly R&D roles. From 2009 to 2012, Sean was a board member of JEDEC, a leading standardization organization for the microelectronics industry, and he also served on the board of directors for privately held Accent International.

Sean earned a master’s degree in Computer Engineering from University of Cincinnati and a bachelor’s degree in Computer and Telecom from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. He continued his Executive Management education at Stanford University and the Wharton School of Business.

Tina Faris is Rambus’s Chief of Staff, as well as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel. Tina joined Rambus in 2013 and has held several positions in the Rambus legal department where she has worked intimately with Rambus product, licensing and functional groups, most recently as head of the Transactions Team. Prior to Rambus, Tina worked in private practice with the law firm of Dechert LLP, with a focus on intellectual property litigation.

Tina is a member of the State Bar of California and earned a Juris Doctor and master’s degree in English Literature from Duke University, and her bachelor’s degree in French from the University of Florida.

Desmond Lynch joined Rambus in 2020 and has served as Chief Financial Officer since August 2022, where he is responsible for the global finance organization, with responsibility for financial management, planning, tax, treasury, controls, and reporting. Previously, he served as the Vice President of Finance for Rambus.

Prior to joining Rambus, Mr. Lynch served as Vice President of Finance at Renesas Electronics, a leading global semiconductor company, where he was head of U.S. finance. Des has extensive semiconductor experience, including financial leadership roles at Integrated Device Technology, Atmel, Knowles Corporation and National Semiconductor.

Mr. Lynch is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and holds a Bachelor of Arts in accountancy and finance from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Jeff Moore is SVP of Global Operations. Jeff joined Rambus in 2014 to build an operations team in support of the then nascent Buffer Chip business; a charter which has grown in scope to cover operations for all of Rambus. Jeff and his teams are responsible for Supply Chain and Procurement, Program Management, Orders Management, Quality Engineering, Product and Test Engineering, IT and Facilities. Jeff joined Rambus from Fairchild Semiconductor, and has held operations and engineering leadership roles at Infineon and LSI/Agere/Lucent. Jeff began his career at Bell Labs, Murray Hill where he was responsible for one of several InGaAsP Lightwave Device design groups.

Jeff earned his bachelor’s degree at UC Davis and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh. Jeff has Financial Analysis training from Wharton, and has served as an adjunct professor for Lehigh University Engineering, delivering classes in Operations Theory, Engineering Economy, Probability and Statistics, as well as serving as a thesis advisor for the Industrial Engineering department.

Kit Rodgers is the senior vice president of Technology Partnerships and Corporate Development for Rambus, where he is responsible for building and growing the business across the various focus areas. Prior to this role, Kit was the senior vice president of Licensing and Technology Partnerships, building and growing Rambus’ technology licensing business and customer-focused IP strategies.

Before joining Rambus, Kit was vice president of Business Development and Licensing for Cryptography Research, Inc., which was acquired by Rambus in in 2011. Kit joined Cryptography Research in 2003 and has extensive experience in building teams and businesses, including business development, technology licensing, operations, finance and corporate strategy. Before joining Cryptography Research, Kit held positions at Acumen Sciences, 12 Entrepreneuring, Scient, and Stanford University.

Kit holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in engineering from Stanford University, where he was a Mayfield Entrepreneurship Fellow.

John Shinn is Rambus’ Senior Vice President and General Counsel. John joined Rambus in October 2016 and assumed the role of General Counsel in 2021. Prior to Rambus, John held senior legal executive roles at both private and public companies in the Silicon Valley, where he was responsible for corporate governance, compliance, intellectual property, commercial transactions, litigation and employment law. John has also worked in private practice with the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, advising high tech and emerging growth companies on technology transactions and mergers and acquisitions. John began his legal career as a litigation attorney with a boutique intellectual property and securities litigation law firm in San Jose.

John is a member of the State Bar of California and earned a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University and his bachelor’s degree in American and European History from Stanford University.