About Us

Diane Baxster, NextFlex’s Director of Finance, brings over 30 years of CFO experience in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Diane started her career with Ernst & Young before joining industry. She has worked in publicly traded companies as well as privately held startups in medical device, biotech, electronics, software, training and services companies. She was the CFO for the United Services Organization, Inc. (USO) and educational institutions. Diane is highly skilled in management of finance and accounting operations, including strategic planning, financial planning and analysis, financial organization, systems implementation, revenue recognition, inventory control, cost accounting, cash management and management of P&L. She is proficient in business development, customer relations, merger & acquisition negotiations, and turnaround situations. She is also experienced in contract negotiations & administration, managing banking relations including debt instruments and investment portfolio management. Diane has strong skills in human resources management setting policies & procedures, recruitment, training and supervision. She has managed corporate compliance and regulatory reporting – FAR, SEC, tax (domestic & int’l) affirmative action, retirement programs and risk analysis.

Stan comes to NextFlex from PulseForge/NovaCentrix where he is a founding member, and served in a variety of internal and external-facing executive roles, though always with a preference for customer and market engagement. During his last 6 years at PulseForge/NovaCentrix, Stan was also the Chairperson for the Frankfurt-based OE-A, where he led the expansion of the eco-system engagement from primarily technical to include marketing and product design. He began his career at Applied Materials in manufacturing operations and new-product development/scale-up.

Stan has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas in Austin, with specialization in heat transfer and fluid mechanics. He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University in Houston where he was a TA for machine shop and welding.

Prior to NextFlex, Dr. Gamota has more than 25 years in innovation, engineering, and manufacturing while leading major companies in the fields of microelectronics, advanced packaging, complex integrated systems, and hybrid electronics. Most recently, Dr. Gamota was VP at Jabil where his global teams provided innovation & engineering services as well as scalable manufacturing operations to SMMs and Fortune 250 companies. He was previously with Motorola, where he served as director and fellow of the technical staff collaborating across the semiconductor, packaging, components, and manufacturing business units to commercialize automotive, communications, industrial, and government & public safety products.

He is well-known for leading R&D and collaborative innovation teams. In addition, Dr. Gamota has led several multi-member microelectronics systems solutions development programs (DARPA, NIST ATP, etc.) He is a member of the SEMI Board of Industry Leaders, University of Michigan MSE External Advisory Board, and San Jose State University Engineering Industry Advisory Council. Dr. Gamota is also active in and has chaired committees developing microelectronics, advanced packaging, and hybrid electronics guidelines, standards, and roadmaps for IEEE, iNEMI, IPC, IEC, A*STAR, and SEMI. Dr. Gamota was elevated to a NextFlex Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and was named a Dan Noble Fellow at Motorola for his contributions and leadership. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Northwestern University.

Dr. Gamota’s first notable efforts in the hybrid electronics sector came in 1999 at Motorola – high density, thin memory die array on a flexible substrate for wireless streaming of encrypted video to a handheld communications product.

Becky joins NextFlex as the Director of Workforce Development, having worked most recently as the Director of Academic Partnerships with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. Becky has over twenty years of leadership experience in higher education, grant procurement and workforce development. She has helped secure multiple Federal and state grants of over 10M at her former organizations and developed collaborative partnerships between academia and industry over the past 20 years, primarily in manufacturing and healthcare. Becky is passionate about improving people’s lives through workforce development, including addressing issues of equity, access to higher education and improving the health and well-being of vulnerable populations through access to quality STEM Education. Becky holds a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Public Health, both from the University of Washington in Seattle.

As the Director of Technology, Scott is responsible for the portfolio of Project Calls funded by NextFlex, runs its Technical Council and Technical Working Groups, leads the development of hybrid  industry roadmapping, oversees initiatives within the Institute, builds and maintains relationships with government and industry partners, and is actively engaged with many of the Agency Driven Projects that NextFlex executes with partner organizations. Scott has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering Degree from the University of Delaware and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, where he did research on large area electronics manufacturing based on printing processes. Prior to joining NextFlex, Scott led materials R&D groups at GE Global Research supporting a diverse range of businesses. He has worked in areas including printed, flexible, and hybrid electronics; wearable devices; additive manufacturing; and bioprinting and biofabrication.

From Startups to large companies, Andy is an experienced and energetic IT Leader with a proven track record of hiring and managing high performance teams including Helpdesk, network, telecom, and enterprise application teams. His specialties include planning and executing IT software and hardware deployments, Cloud Migrations, process improvement initiatives, and data center infrastructure expansions. He also has experience managing global teams, budgets, vendors, and cross functional project teams.

Erica Roman, NextFlex’s General Counsel, brings over 20 years of experience to this role. Her practice has spanned a variety of environments, from law firms to the U.S. Government, from litigation to transactional law. Her experience is firmly rooted in technology, having practiced with large and boutique law firms in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, including being a member of the Intellectual Property and Technology Licensing Group at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper).

Ms. Roman suspended her private practice for several years when she was selected to serve in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Copyright Office in Washington, D.C. Her duties included addressing multi-agency intellectual property policy matters and amicus curiae brief positions on behalf of the U.S. Government, in addition to preparing Congressional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet.

Ms. Roman has deep experience with counseling non-profit technology consortia and other trade groups. She was a member of the original proposal team to secure NextFlex’s funding via its Cooperative Agreement, and has remained a legal advisor to NextFlex since its inception. Ms. Roman was named NextFlex’s General Counsel in November, 2018.

Ms. Roman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Yale University and a Juris Doctorate from University of California, Hastings. Ms. Roman is admitted to practice in California as well as before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Karen is responsible for marketing and brand strategy, oversees the membership program, and develops and executes events for members and the hybrid electronics community. Prior to joining NextFlex, Karen served as the President of the Americas for SEMI where she led a broad number of strategic industry initiatives involving professionals from across the globe. Karen holds a BS in Business Management from San Jose State University.

As Director of Engineering and Fab Operations, Fabian Schnegg leads both the Engineering and the Manufacturing team in the NextFlex Technology Hub. Prior to joining NextFlex, Fabian was Equipment Maintenance Manager in the Die Attach area of Skyworks Solutions in Mexico and led the Process Development group at Die Bonder manufacturer Besi in Austria before that. Fabian has an Engineer’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg, Germany. He is co-author of an article on Ultra-thin Chip Handling, published at Springer Science.

As the Director of Human Resources, Taylor is responsible for all HR functions including strategic programs and initiatives, company-wide communication and events, health and safety, legal compliance, recruitment and retention of a diverse and high-quality workforce, benefits administration, and employee morale and well-being.

Taylor has the unique experience of joining NextFlex in February 2016, only 6 months after its inception, making her the 12^th employee in the company, supporting the varied needs of a burgeoning Executive Team. As the company grew, Taylor was able to devote her full attention to HR, drawing upon the people skills she had developed through her years in the hospitality and recreation industries. During NextFlex’s rapid expansion from 2019 to 2022, Taylor was instrumental in growing the NextFlex workforce by 57%.

Taylor earned her Master’s degree in Business Administration from San Jose State University, and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from University of California at Santa Cruz. She is currently an active member in the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).