John Knights
Senior Director of Business Development

John Knights is Senior Director of PARC’s commercial business development activities, including strategic research and co-development engagements with industry partners. He has broad operational experience in product development, marketing, and manufacturing, along with expertise in intellectual property issues.

Before joining PARC in this role, Knights ran his own consulting business which specializes in intellectual property transactions and technology transfer. His clients included corporate research laboratories in the U.S. and Europe, and major Taiwanese and Japanese high-technology companies.

Prior to forming his own company, Knights held executive positions in engineering, marketing, and operations, in companies such as PARC spinoff LiveWorks, Inc. and Versatec. Knights also managed PARC’s former Integrated Circuit Laboratory and conducted research in PARC’s former General Sciences Laboratory research organizations, where he initiated research into amorphous silicon (a-Si).

Dr. Knights obtained a Ph.D. in solid state Physics from the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, U.K. He has authored over 50 technical publications and holds 8 U.S. Patents.