Executive Team
Joseph L. Lias
President, Simplay Labs, LLC
As President of Simplay Labs, LLC., Joseph L. Lias is responsible for developing a worldwide brand presence for Simplay Labs and Simplay HD in the consumer electronics (CE) industry. The Simplay Labs mission is to make the HD lifestyle more rewarding for everyone: manufacturers, retailers, installers and end users.
Lias leads the Simplay Labs' go-to-market strategy to promote high-definition interoperability and backward compatibility between consumer electronic devices supporting the HDMI, DVI and UDI standards. Lias manages the worldwide Simplay Labs testing centers and development programs, while expanding and evangelizing both programs with key retailers, consumer electronics manufacturers and consumers.
Lias has spent more than 20 years as a leader and team builder for a variety of companies where he has launched organizations, built management teams and delivered consistent profits. Prior to joining Silicon Image, Lias served as the president of THX, Ltd., the leading provider of technologies, certification programs and quality assurance standards for the entertainment industry.
Before THX, Lias served in executive leadership positions at a variety of high technology companies, such as Kipper Technologies, Inc., a Kipper Tool Company subsidiary, Carina Networks, Inc., a high-tech manufacturing start-up with a broadband-over-electrical power line product, and Terawave Communications, Inc., a global Passive Optical Networking manufacturing company. Lias began his career at Northern Telecom/Bell Northern Research, where he was involved in manufacturing, R&D and product management.
Lias earned a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Damon Vanderhorst
Director of Operations, Simplay Labs, LLC
As Director of Operations of Simplay Labs, LLC, Damon Vanderhorst is responsible for
day-to-day worldwide operations of Silicon Image’s HDMI Authorized Test Center (ATC)
and Simplay Labs’ testing centers in China, Germany and Sunnyvale, California.
Vanderhorst brings more than 25 years of executive level customer support management
experience to Simplay.
Prior to joining Simplay, Vanderhorst spent eight years at Sun Microsystems, where he
held several senior support services management positions, most recently as strategic
account executive responsible for Oracle and Saleforce.com.
Vanderhorst began his career at Amdahl Corporation where he served for 15 years in
various roles in Manufacturing, Marketing and Customer Support. Following his tenure
at Amdahl, Vanderhorst spent several years at Visa USA as vice president of marketing
support services.
Vanderhorst received an MBA degree from University of Phoenix and a Bachelor’s degree
in Management from San Jose State University.