Dr. Ekchian was an original founder of Litex in August 1996 and has a proven track record in managing both large and small technology-based companies. Before joining Litex, Dr. Ekchian was employed as a business development executive at Lockheed Corporation from 1993 to 1996, where he was responsible for commercialization of new technology businesses, formation of strategic alliances, generation and evaluation of business plans, business valuation and licensing of intellectual property.

Prior to working at Lockheed, he was business development manager of advanced programs at Litton Industries, Inc. in Agoura, Calif., from 1988 to 1993, where he focused on surveillance, command and control systems, and their commercial application to automotive collision systems. While at Litton he earned the 1991 Litton Data Systems Outstanding Employee Award for Business Development and the 1992 Litton Corporate Advanced Technology Award for having developed a new line of business in airborne tracking systems.

Dr. Ekchian graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with B.S. (1977), M.S. (1980) and Ph.D. (1982) degrees from the department of electrical engineering and computer science, with specialization in control systems and signal processing. He went on to obtain an MBA (1992) from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), with concentration in marketing, strategy, and finance. Dr. Ekchian is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers.