Hamed Sadeghian
CEO at Nearfield Instruments B.V.

Hamed Sadeghian (Nearfield Instruments) – ‘Not afraid of defying the status quo’

Hamed Sadeghian is breaking the mold when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion for all those who work for his company. In 2016 he co-founded Nearfield Instruments, a semiconductor equipment company with more than 200 employees and more than 35 nationalities, offering highly innovative metrology and inspection solutions for semiconductor manufacturing industry.

As his company is successfully moving forward in the semiconductor industry, it also smoothes the path in advancing diversity in tech. From rethinking performance evaluations and writing gender-neutral job descriptions to considering a fifth-day-free- to work on new concepts scheme, Sadeghian and his team are not afraid of defying the status quo.

Nearfield Instruments and its co-founder admittedly do things differently. “We are not a corporate which needs diversity as a KPI. So, if we do it, it’s because we believe in it. If you want to make a business successful, especially in deep tech, which is very risky, it all boils down to managing the risk”, he says.

With a room full of similar, like-minded people, certain risks will be hidden because everyone sees the unavoidables and unmanageables from a similar angle. When you have a diverse team, the chance of seeing risk from a completely different perspective is much higher.

PhD, MBA and more…

Hamed Sadeghian grew up in Iran with two sisters. He moved to the Netherlands, received his PhD from Delft University of Technology (2010). Four years later he received an MBA from the Vlerick Business School in Leuven, Belgium. He is also the founder (2001) of Jahesh Poulad Corporation, a manufacturer of mechanical equipment, which was acquired in 2006.

Nearfield Instruments develops, produces and markets revolutionary high throughput scanning probe microscopy systems, enabling atom-scale resolution 3D metrology at industry-level throughput. These advanced metrology machines enable customers – the world’s leading chipmakers – to increase the production yields, and thus, functionality of their microchips.