Insider Brief
- Xanadu Quantum Technologies and Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp. announced four independent director nominees for the post-merger public entity as the companies advance their planned business combination.
- The proposed board members – Glenda Dorchak, Eliot Pence, Michelle Reynolds, and The Honorable Heidi Shyu – bring experience across semiconductors, defense technology, public markets, finance, and corporate governance.
- The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and shareholder consent, with the combined company planning to trade under the ticker “XNDU” on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
PRESS RELEASE — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc. (“Xanadu”), a leading photonic quantum computing company, and Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp. (“Crane Harbor”) (Nasdaq: CHAC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced the proposed nomination of:
- Glenda Dorchak, former public company Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of several companies and current board member of GlobalFoundries and Cerebras;
- Eliot Pence, Founder of Dominion Dynamics and former global growth leader at Anduril Industries;
- Michelle Reynolds, Chief Accounting Officer & Treasurer, Vice President at Reddit, Inc.; and
- The Honorable Heidi Shyu, former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology,
as directors of Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited (“NewCo”), the post-closing public company, in connection with the previously announced business combination.
Xanadu’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Christian Weedbrook, and Crane Harbor’s Chief Executive Officer, Bill Fradin, will also sit on NewCo’s Board of Directors following the completion of the business combination.
The board nominations come as Xanadu advances its previously announced business combination with Crane Harbor and NewCo, which is expected to trade on the Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “XNDU”, respectively, following the closing of the business combination, subject to approval of such stock exchanges and other customary conditions in connection with the business combination.
“The addition of these new independent directors will further strengthen our Board as we enter the next phase of our evolution into a public company,” said Christian Weedbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu. “Glenda, Eliot, Michelle, and Heidi each bring deep experience and expertise across global governance, public markets, finance, operations, and technology, areas that will be mission-critical to Xanadu’s success as we continue to scale our category-defining company. Bringing on independent directors of this caliber is a resounding endorsement for our company, and we will benefit greatly from their collective skillsets and expertise as we continue to make quantum computing an achievable and scalable reality.”
The proposed transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to the Registration Statement being declared effective by the SEC, the approval by Crane Harbor and Xanadu shareholders, and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
Please see below for further details on the background and deep experience of the post-merger board nominees.
Glenda Dorchak
Glenda Dorchak is a seasoned global executive and former public company Chief Executive Officer and Chairman who now serves as a trusted advisor and board member to leading public and private technology companies. With senior leadership experience at IBM, Intel, and Spansion, she brings deep strategic, operational, and governance expertise to the boardroom. She has served on more than a dozen boards, with significant experience in corporate governance, strategic growth, M&A, and stakeholder management.
Glenda currently serves on the boards of GlobalFoundries, a leading semiconductor foundry, and Cerebras, a private generative AI semiconductor and services company. Her prior board roles include Mellanox Technologies (acquired by NVIDIA), Quantenna Communications (acquired by ON Semiconductor), and Ansys (acquired by Synopsys).
Earlier in her career, she was Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Intel’s Communications Group, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Intrinsyc Software, and Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VirtualLogix, which was acquired by Red Bend. She also served as Executive Vice President and General Manager Global Business at Spansion, a flash memory public semiconductor company.
Eliot Pence
Eliot Pence is a builder of frontier defense and industrial companies. He founded Dominion Dynamics, a defense firm working to establish sovereign capability in aerospace, autonomy, and command-and-control, in 2025.
Prior to Dominion Dynamics, he was the Chief Business Officer at Osmo, from 2024 to 2025, and Cambium Biomaterials, from 2022-2024, leading government and enterprise go-to-market efforts to translate frontier R&D into deployable platforms.
From 2018 to 2022, Eliot led global growth at Anduril Industries, joining as one of the company’s very first business development hires and playing a central role in building it into one of America’s most consequential defense technology companies. He created Anduril’s international go-to-market strategy from scratch, bootstrapped overseas growth, and built teams across three continents—shaping how Anduril scaled as a global defense prime. Prior to Anduril, he was a senior director at McLarty Associates, the Washington, D.C.–based advisory firm. He serves on the U.S. Trade Representative’s Advisory Committee and the Yale University President’s Council on International Activities.
Michelle Reynolds
Michelle Reynolds is an experienced finance executive with deep expertise in accounting, capital markets, and public company leadership. She has led two Initial Public Offerings (“IPOs”) and brings significant experience across financial reporting, U.S. Securities and Exchange compliance, treasury management, and strategic finance.
Michelle currently serves as Chief Accounting Officer & Treasurer, Vice President at Reddit, Inc., where she oversees global accounting and treasury functions and plays a key role in executive leadership, business transformation, and strategic financial management. Michelle has extensive experience guiding companies through IPO readiness and execution, capital allocation, and the complexities of operating in the public markets. She is known for building and leading high-performing finance teams and driving operational excellence across the financial statement close process, technical accounting, and regulatory reporting.
Throughout her career, she has led business process transformation initiatives, strengthened internal controls, and executed complex cross-functional projects that support scalable growth.
Michelle has served on the FASB Public Markets Advisory Committee since 2025.
The Honorable Heidi Shyu
The Honorable Heidi Shyu is a nationally recognized defense and technology leader and the Chief Executive Officer of Hon Heidi Shyu, LLC. She currently serves on several corporate and advisory boards.
From 2021 to 2025, Heidi served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering, acting as the Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Defense (“DoD”). In that role, she was responsible for ensuring the technological superiority of the U.S. military and oversaw research, development, and prototyping activities across the DoD enterprise, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Missile Defense Agency, and the DoD laboratory and engineering centers.
Previously, Heidi served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, where she was the Army Acquisition Executive, Senior Procurement Executive, Science Advisor to the Secretary of the Army, and the Army’s Senior Research and Development official. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles at Raytheon, including Vice President of Technology Strategy for Space & Airborne Systems.
Heidi is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and an AIAA Honorary Fellow, and is the recipient of numerous distinguished public service and civilian leadership awards.
