Previous Chairman of the BoardRockell N. Hankin

Rockell (Rock) Hankin (1947-2026) was chairman of The Kavli Foundation board of directors, a leading global science philanthropy whose mission is to advance science for the benefit of humanity.

Previously, Mr. Hankin was chair of the board of Semtech Corporation, a leading global supplier of high-performance semiconductor, IOT systems and cloud connectivity services (NASDAQ:SMTC), and prior to that, chair of the board of House of Fabrics before it merged with FabriCenters of America. He had served on numerous boards of both public and private companies in a variety of sectors throughout his career, including DDL Electronics, Inc. (NYSE); SPARTA, Inc. (before it was acquired by Cobham); Nichols Institute (ASE; before it merged with Corning); Quidel Corporation (NASDAQ); Techniclone (NASDAQ); Alpha Microsystems (NASDAQ); Hoya Corporation USA and Hoya Photonics; UVDI; Concentric Energy Corp.; and SBA Materials in which he was a principal investor; Advanced Bionics Corporation; Kavlico Corporation; La Victoria Foods, Inc.; Orthomedics; and VTEK. In his capacity as a board member, Mr. Hankin chaired and served on all board committees and had been designated a financial expert. He was also a member of the National Board of Advisors of The Executive Committee (now Vistage), an organization of business owners and chief executive officers.

For 18 years, Mr. Hankin practiced in the international accounting and consulting firm of Price Waterhouse, where he became a general partner in 1978 and managing partner of the Warner Center, Los Angeles office in 1982. Following Price Waterhouse, he founded and served as chief executive of Hankin Investment Banking and its affiliate Hankin & Co., a consulting firm established in 1986, supervising and leading the activities of the two firms. Hankin Investment Banking represented buyers and sellers of businesses and accomplished institutional financing for its clients. Hankin & Co. provided a range of strategic consulting services including expert consulting, analysis and testimony in complex business litigation.

Mr. Hankin was also an adjunct faculty member at several academic institutions. In 2013, he was adjunct faculty at UNC Charlotte, teaching a graduate course in entrepreneurship. From 2004-2005, he co-created and taught a joint course to graduate business school and law students at USC’s School of Law on governance and other lessons learned from the Enron Era. For 12 years (1986-1998) Mr. Hankin was an adjunct faculty member of the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he taught a course in business strategy and planning as part of the school’s entrepreneurship course of study. He also held a lectureship position at UCLA’s extension university and an associate professorship at California State University, Northridge. Mr. Hankin presented regularly on corporate governance issues at the Duke Capital Markets Director’s Education Institute, UCLA’s Director Certification Program, University of Maryland’s Directors’ Institute and various other corporate governance programs. He was Executive in Residence at Queens University, Charlotte. Hankin also provided advisory representation to the Regents of the University of California with respect to their claims in Enron, WorldCom, Dynegy and AOL/TimeWarner, as a member of The Irving Team, led by District Judge J. Lawrence Irving.

Mr. Hankin received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting graduating cum laude from UCLA and his Bachelor of Laws Degree from the Blackstone School of Law. He was additionally a Certified Public Accountant and Member of the California State Bar.