Management Team

Monica A.B. Murphy, President and Chief Executive Officer
Since co-founding the company in 1986, Ms. Murphy has been instrumental in growing Athena from a startup focused on R&D to commercialization. Prior to joining Athena, Ms. Murphy was the Contracts and Grants Administrator (1985-1988) for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Jonathon D. Mellott, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer
Since joining the company full-time in 1997, Dr. Mellott has been the inventor and chief developer of Athena's technology. Dr. Mellott previously served as Director of ASIC Technologies for Athena. Dr. Mellott is highly recognized and respected in his field and has published extensively, including a textbook on DSP, refereed journal articles, and conference papers.

Fredrick J. Taylor, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board
Dr. Taylor co-founded the company with Ms. Murphy in 1986. Dr. Taylor was principal director of Athena's R&D efforts through 1996 and continues to be an active participant in all R&D activities. Dr. Taylor is also currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer and Information Science Engineering at the University of Florida, where he serves as the Director of the Institute for Advanced Computer Research as well as the Director of the High-Speed Digital Architecture Laboratory.

Patrick D. Rugg, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Pat Rugg joined Athena in November 2000. Prior to Athena, Mr. Rugg served as a Senior Account Manager and Applications Engineer at Synopsys, Inc., the leading provider of the complex integrated circuit (IC) design tools. From 1988 through 1993, Mr. Rugg was employed by Harris Corp. as Lead Engineer. He designed and released four first-time products for Harris: the first MCM, the first two synthesized ASICs, and the first submicron ASIC.