Who’s News: Strategic Appointments at SemiQon, OrangeQS, IonQ, Haiqu, and Jij

SemiQon has appointed Dr. Thierry Botter as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Botter most recently served a five-year term as Executive Director of the European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC), stepping down in August 2026 after helping grow the association to over 230 members. Earlier in his career, he held advanced technology and innovation leadership roles at Airbus. At SemiQon, Botter will lead global commercialization and market expansion for the company’s cryogenically optimized CMOS hardware solutions. The full press release is available here. OrangeQS has appointed semiconductor industry veteran Raj Badoni as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Badoni brings two decades of commercial and customer-centric leadership experience across the semiconductor and photonics sectors, having previously held senior roles at KLA, ASM, Onto Innovation, and SMART Photonics. In his new position, he will oversee global sales, commercial strategy, and ecosystem collaborations—including the OrangeQS MAX Partnership Program—to scale automated quantum chip testing infrastructure. The official announcement can be found here. IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) has expanded its executive finance leadership with the appointments of Gary Merrill as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective early December, and Thomas A. Austin as Chief Accounting Officer (CAO), effective immediately, succeeding Inder M. Singh. Merrill joins from Commvault Systems, where he served as both CFO and Chief Commercial Officer, driving SaaS expansion and financial transformation. Austin brings over three decades of accounting and regulatory compliance experience, having previously served as CAO at Juniper Networks and Vice President of Corporate Finance at EMC Corporation and Dell Technologies. The complete release is accessible here. Haiqu has appointed Kortny Rolston-Duce as Head of Ecosystem Development and Marketing. Rolston-Duce brings extensive quantum industry and national laboratory experience, having previously served as Director of Ecosystem Development at Quantinuum—where she also held communications leadership roles following its formation from Honeywell Quantum Solutions—and earlier held marketing and communications leadership positions at Atom Computing and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. At Haiqu, she will lead brand strategy and expand researcher engagement across academia, government labs, and commercial enterprises for the company’s HaiquOS and AgenticOS software platforms. Her LinkedIn profile can be viewed here. Jij has appointed Oren Bernstein as Vice President of Business Development for North America. Bernstein brings extensive cross-border business development experience connecting Japanese technology companies with the North American innovation ecosystem. In his new role, he will lead Jij’s U.S. commercial expansion, strategic partnerships, and ecosystem engagement for its mathematical optimization and quantum computing software solutions. The announcement is available here. We wish all these organizations and individuals success in their new endeavors. In GQI Portal The players behind the news The team that writes QCR tracks every company, deal and technology in the GQI Factory, GQI's verified database of the quantum industry. Next up: every story linked to its players, coming to QCR's paid plans. Players →Companies and institutions across the quantum industry, by segment. Scorecards →How the players compare on hardware, software, funding and more. Newsletter QCR Alerts in your inbox The latest reporting and analysis from Quantum Computing Report. Free, unsubscribe any time. Sign up for QCR Alerts Leave a commentCancel replyAll fields are required. Your email address will not be published.CommentName Email Type in the text displayed above Δ