Leonce John "L. J." Sevin, Jr. (August 28, 1930 - September 12, 2015) was an American

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

and co-founder of

Mostek Mostek Corporation was a semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturer, founded in 1969 by L. J. Sevin, Louay E. Sharif, Richard L. Petritz and other ex-employees of Texas Instruments. At its peak in the late 1970s, Mostek held an 85% market sh ...

." He was also co-founder of

Sevin Rosen Funds Sevin Rosen Funds (SRF) is a Texas-based venture capital firm credited with pioneering the personal computing revolution in the 1980s and also venture investing in Dallas. It was established in 1981 by L. J. Sevin, a former Texas Instruments engi ...

Early life

He was born to Leonce John Sevin, Sr. and Pauline Perkins Sevin in

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

. He fought in the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

and, with funding from the G. I. Bill, attended and graduated from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

, with a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering. In 1965, while working for TI, he wrote a book, "Field Effect Transistors" that was translated into seven languages.

Career

Sevin co-founded

when, in 1969, he left

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

; he was the company's CEO for ten years. With Benjamin M. Rosen, he co-founded

in 1981.

Service

He served on the board at * Institute of Technology at Southern Methodist University, * the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, * the Bulova Watch Company and * the Trade Policy Committee of the Semiconductor Industry Association.EndQuote * Dallas Opera Board of Directors

Family

When Sevin died, his family included wife Jo Danna Sevin, daughters Christine Sevin Burke and Paula Sevin Webster Hayes, son Gordon Sevin, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. In 1982 daughter JoAnna Sevin "died in an automobile accident."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevin, L. J. 1930 births 2015 deaths American company founders American technology chief executives