SAN FRANCISCO, USA – Diosdado “Dado” Banatao, 65, unabashedly claims his roots from a rural area in the Cagayan Valley known as Iguig. But it is no accident that he now sits on the big chair of a multimillion-dollar company: Tallwood Venture Capital.

Banatao is the founding partner at the firm focusing on investing in companies that develop semiconductors and semiconductor-related technologies.

Unlike many Silicon Valley executives, Banatao did not show up to work on a Monday morning in a suit and tie; instead, he wore an athletic shirt and black shorts.

His large but quiet and clean downtown Silicon Valley office is a far cry from Iguig, but Banatao still manages to add touches of the Philippines to the office.

Employees and associates are greeted by a large painting of a rural barrio scene, painted by a Filipino artist commissioned by Banatao.

Guests would notice the coasters at the office are made of capiz, a shell commonly found in the Philippines used to inlay windows, lanterns and other furnishings.

“The color is perfect,” Banatao says, referring to how the yellow background of the painting depicts the color of the rice fields when hit by the sun. “I grew up around a lot of farm lands and that is how I remember the fields to look like.”

Banatao said he has been interested in science and technology since he was young.  

Roots

One of 4 children of a farmer and a housekeeper, he attended Ateneo de Tuguegarao for high school and graduated cum laude in electrical engineering at the Mapua Institute of Technology.

“I think I did well in engineering, but I was so bored. I was only 20 years old when I graduated from their 5-year program, so I guess at that age I wasn’t happy with what jobs were being offered,” Banatao said. “I was looking for something exciting and Philippine Airlines (PAL) was looking for pilot trainees, so I applied, was accepted and started flying.  

After PAL he was then hired by Boeing as a design engineer in the 1960s. Later that decade, he landed on American soil like many other Filipino professionals.  

Innovation

He landed jobs with different technology-based companies including National Conductor, Intersil and Commodore International.

“There were not too many Filipinos working in technology at the time,” Banatao said.  

Though the number of Filipinos working in Silicon Valley has increased, he said “we can do better.”

“We are dwarfed by the number of Chinese and Indian engineers,” but he said the possibilities for Fil-Am scientists and engineers are “limitless.”

“The multiplier effect is there,” he emphasized. “It’s just up to us to encourage the youth to go into science and engineering.”

Although Banatao recognizes what he did as “pioneering,” Banatao stops short of calling himself an inventor. “Innnovation,” he said, is the more appropriate term.

“Innovation is more important because innovation implies you are putting together a whole bunch of other elements beyond that one invention. Innovation implies industry,” Banatao said.

Banatao’s “innovations” include: the first single-chip, 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator; first enhanced graphics adapter chip set; pioneered local bus concept for PC and the first Windows graphics accelerator chip. 

He founded 3 technology companies: Mostron in 1985, Chips & Technologies, and S3.

“Mostron was a failure,” he said. “We ran out of money. The idea was good, so I tweaked the product a little more into a semiconductor system,” he said.

His next company C&T helped Banatao break ground with his product, gaining more funding to develop it further.

Watch #TalkThursday with Dado Banatao

Value 

“We took the company public only after 22 months,” Banatao said.  The C&T sales amounted to US$12 million in the first quarter alone.  The company’s stock was the fastest selling stock in US history at the time. Intel bought the company for $430 million in 1996.

His third company, S3, introduced the first Windows accelerator chip. In 1993, S3 was considered the third most profitable company in the world. The company had an IPO worth over $30 million when it went public. 

Inventor, innovator or technology pioneer, Banatao’s extraordinary achievements in technology are undoubtedly remarkable.

But his greatest achievements, he said, would mean nothing without his family. “What good is it if I’m a successful engineer or investor if my family life is broken?” Banatao explained.

He admitted that his family has made lots of sacrifices, but he is proud that they all remain close.

He credits his wife of 40 years, Maria, as being a big part of keeping the family together.  

Dado and Maria have 3 kids: Rey, Desi, and Tala.

Dado flies his own planes in his spare time and tries his best to stay fit.

Despite a 4-decade career, he said he doesn’t plan to slow down. “What I do now has to continue. I don’t think we ever retire, we just move on from one task to another.” – Rappler.com

This profile was originally published on Sept 9, 2011 and is republished with permission from Philippine News.