John Palmour Email Address

Chief Technology Officer, Wolfspeed, A Cree Company

Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio-frequency (RF) applications.

Dr. John Palmour co-founded Cree in 1987, now a more-than-$1-billion company and market-leading innovator transforming what's possible in LED technology, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio frequency (RF) applications. At the onset, he knew Cree had the opportunity to define the market with the blue LED and had the cutting-edge vision to transform power devices. As CTO of Cree’s high-potential power and RF business units, John focuses on pioneering breakthrough semiconductor technology for power and RF commercial applications, businesses central to Cree from the start, even before the company built its LED lighting empire. Embodying the risk-taking and relentless reinventing culture that Cree was founded upon, John has helped Cree transform the traditionally slow-moving and risk-averse power and RF industries with a no-such-thing-as impossible approach to innovation. Today, Cree’s power and RF businesses grow at a rate of about 20 percent a year, with a bright future ahead. He has been responsible for 70 U.S. patents in the areas of processing and device designs for silicon carbide and gallium nitride electronic devices.