i am here

Bryan J Root

Bryan J Root

Founder, Chairman of the Board

Bryan has a BSEE from the University of Colorado, Boulder and is an IEEE Fellow. He started his engineering career at Mostek Corporation in Dallas TX as a device reliability engineer researching and developing fast semiconductor wafer level reliability tests. Bryan then took a job at Sperry Semiconductor in Eagan MN as a senior device engineer in the advanced technology development group continuing his device and reliability research. Bryan was the founder of Sienna Technologies in 1987, a semiconductor reliability test equipment company. In 1988 he left Sperry to devote full time to Sienna. He sold Sienna to Aetrium Corp. in late 1993 and left Aetrium in 1997 to start Celadon Systems focusing on ultra-high performance probe cards for device modeling, and wafer level reliability. Along the way he was the founding Chairman of the JEDEC 14.2, the industry standards committee on wafer level reliability; has published research at IEEE IRPS, VMIC, IIRW, was an invited speaker at SWTest and other conferences. Bryan holds more than 60 patents on his work.  Bryan is an avid skier, bicyclist, traveling around the world with his family, and all thing outdoors.

i am here

William (Bill) A. Funk

William (Bill) A. Funk

Chief Technical Officer

Bill earned his Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at University of Minnesota. Bill spent 16 years in Aerospace with Beech aircraft and Rosemount Aerospace and has been leading the technical pursuits at Celadon since 2001. Bill has multiple patents in Electronics, Industrial, and Medical. Bill enjoys cycling, skiing and building things.

i am here

Jennifer E. Nichols

Jennifer E. Nichols

Director of Finance and Operations

Jennifer earned her B.A. in Mathematics from St. Olaf College. Jennifer is responsible for fiscal management and planning, internal controls, budgeting and operations. She came to Celadon in 2014 having spent most of her career in the banking industry, most recently as a Regional Manager for $100+ billion Savings and Loan. Jennifer also serves on the board of directors for EVCF, an organization that gives scholarships and grants to local school districts.

i am here

Karen R. Armendariz

Karen R. Armendariz

President and CEO

Karen earned her Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from Oklahoma City University. Karen has spent the majority of her 20+ year career in the electronics industry mostly in semiconductors and as well in contract manufacturing. She held various engineering and manufacturing leadership positions within Goodyear, York International, Nat’l Semiconductor and Intel Corporation. She shifted into outside sales with TEXSource, a leading semiconductor rep firm located in Texas where she worked over 10 years. Next she was responsible for business development at Krypton Solutions then Creation Technologies in contract manufacturing. Karen joined Celadon Systems in early 2013 as VP of Sales and Marketing.  In 2020 she was promoted to President & CEO. Karen loves solving technical challenges, creating “OH WOW!” products, and building partnerships with customers and vendors. She enjoys traveling, hiking and water sports.

i am here

Joan M. Hennes

Joan M. Hennes

Director of Manufacturing

Joan attended Minnesota State University, Mankato. She started her career in Manufacturing at Rosemont Control Division where she gained 11 years of experience in production and training. Joan came to Celadon 2001 as a production lead and progressed into process integration and manufacturing engineering as well as Research and Development, she was promoted to Director of Manufacturing. Joan enjoys camping, boating and time with family and friends.

i am here

Bonnie Kee-Bowling

Bonnie Kee-Bowling

Director of Engineering

Bonnie earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Boston University, Boston, MA, and a Masters Certificate in Program Management from George Washington University, Washington D.C. She has 30+ years of technical experience in researching, developing, designing, manufacturing, and testing complex systems. Bonnie came to Celadon in 2020, and as Director of Engineering she is responsible for strategically leading and day-to-day managing our engineering team. Bonnie is a published textbook and technical paper author, and a member of the U of M Business Advisory Group (BAG). Bonnie enjoys ALL things fitness, classic movies, reading, and community involvement.