The semiconductor industry has a pipeline problem. Women enter the field, but somewhere between mid-management and the executive level, they disappear. Emily Yang knows this from experience, and she’s doing something about it. In an industry where innovation is currency, Emily Yang has built a career on the belief that the best way to succeed is to lift others up. As Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Diodes Incorporated, she's not only driven transformative growth, but also championed mentorship and community impact, embodying perfectly this year's International Women's Day theme: give to gain. Emily discusses what effective leadership actually looks like across cultures. She explains how Diodes transformed from a discrete component supplier into a solutions-led organisation, why humanoid robotics is the emerging application she’s most excited about, and why geopolitical supply chain disruption is the challenge the industry isn’t talking about loudly enough. She also makes the case for mentorship as a structural fix, not a feel-good programme. #IWD2026 #GiveToGain #Leadership #Semiconductors #STEM #Mentorship #WeTalkIoT Summary of this week’s episode: 01:30 Emily’s career path: from customer service rep to SVP 04:30 How leadership style evolves when you’ve been on every rung 07:00 Transforming Diodes: from component sales to solution selling 09:30 Executive presence and communicating vision to a global team 11:30 Leadership philosophy: trust, advocacy, and the carrot approach 13:30 Diodes’ technology portfolio: MOSFETs, signal integrity, PCIe Gen 6 15:30 Humanoid robotics: the emerging application worth watching 18:00 Leading across cultures: what employee survey scores reveal 21:00 The Women in High Tech Mentoring Programme and why it works 24:00 On sponsors, self-doubt, and working your way up without a map 26:00 The geopolitical supply chain challenge no one discusses enough 27:30 Lessons learned: define your leadership style before someone else does 29:00 Work-life integration and closing advice to women in the industry Show notes: Emily Yang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-yang-153a69/ You can get in touch with her: [email protected] Global Semiconductor Alliance — Women’s Leadership Initiative: https://designthesolution.org/about-wli/ Listen to the “We Talk IoT” Soundtrack on: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/05MOV4OV2MH2in2txsAGtG?si=ad08112cb8d443f4 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-NvQ6VJYtE&list=PLLqgVFfZhDRVYmpEqbgajzDvGL4kACRDp About Avnet Silica: This podcast is brought to you by Avnet Silica—the Engineers of Evolution. Subscribe to our newsletters here: https://my.avnet.com/silica/resources/newsletter/ You can connect with us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/silica-an-avnet-company/. Or find us at www.avnet-silica.com.

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