Aart de Geus

Last updated
Aart J. de Geus
Aart de Geus.jpg
BornJune 1954 (age 69)
Vlaardingen, Netherlands
NationalityDutch
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Businessman and electrical engineer
Known forFounder and Executive Chair, Synopsys Inc.

Aart J. de Geus (born June 1954) is a co-founder and executive chair of Synopsys Inc., where he was CEO until January 2024. [1] [2]

Contents

De Geus graduated with a master's degree in electrical engineering (1978) from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of technology), EPFL, Switzerland followed by a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University, Texas, United States, in 1985. [3] De Geus was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science degree from the University of Glasgow in 2022. [4]

De Geus is one of the original pioneers of Electronic Design Automation (EDA), the software tools used in the semiconductor industry to design chips. De Geus was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2019 for leadership and technical contributions to logic synthesis for integrated circuits. He is also a fellow of IEEE and a Phil Kaufman Award winner, and he received the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal for his leadership in the technology and business development of EDA. He is on the board of the Global Semiconductor Association (GSA) and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. [5]

De Geus is also the lead guitarist of Silicon Valley's 'Legally Blue' blues band. [6]

Career

De Geus started his career at GE with Rohrer, leading a team that developed tools including the Synthesis and Optimization of Combinational logic, using a Rule-based and Technology-independent Expert System (SOCRATES) synthesis program. [6] [7]

When GE removed itself from the semiconductor business, de Geus met with Ed Hood, Vice Chair of GE, and convinced GE to support a spin-off of the synthesis technology with an additional $400,000 investment in return for equity in a new venture. [8] [9] [10] With two members of his original GE team, David Gregory and Bill Krieger, de Geus founded Optimal Solutions Inc. in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina on December 18, 1986. [6]

In 1987, the company moved to Silicon Valley and was renamed Synopsys, combining the terms Synthesis and Optimization Systems. [6] When the company went public on February 26, 1992, de Geus turned GE’s initial investment into $23 million. [8] [11] As of 2024, Synopsys has over 100 global offices, annual sales topping $5.8 billion in revenue, and over 20,000 employees worldwide. [12]

As Synopsys’ CEO, de Geus led the company through several phases, including commercializing automated logic synthesis, expanding its product portfolio, and navigating acquisitions. [11] [13]  De Geus grew the company from a small, one-product start-up to a provider of IC design tools, semiconductor IP, and application security solutions. [14]  He credits working on a farm during his youth every summer for learnings and principles he applied to Synopsys’ corporate culture. [15]  

He frequently speaks at major electronics and design automation conferences and has authored over 25 papers on logic synthesis, simulation, timing, and interconnect delay. [16] During his keynote at the Hot Chips Conference in 2021, de Geus introduced advances in using artificial intelligence (AI) in semiconductor design automation. [17]

On May 12, 2022, he gave the opening remarks on accelerating U.S. semiconductor innovation during the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology meeting. Later that year, he attended the CHIPS and Science Act signing by President Joe Biden at The White House on August 9, 2022. [18] [19]

Directorship

De Geus has served on the Synopsys Board since the company’s founding in 1986. [20] De Geus led Synopsys for over three and a half decades, as the company shifted from computer-aided design to electronic design automation, designed circuits for different foundries, and completed over 100 M&A transactions. [6] [21]

Since 2007, de Geus has also served on the Board of Directors of Applied Materials and is a member of the Strategy Committee of the Board. [22]

He is a longtime member and former two-time chair of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, formerly the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, where he led the effort to give teachers paid summer fellowships at electronics companies. [15]

De Geus is also a board member of the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESDA), and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. [23] [24]

Philanthropy

In 1999, de Geus founded the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Outreach Foundation (also known as the Synopsys Science Foundation), which helps students and teachers in Santa Clara County learn about science and math through a project-based curriculum and supplies annual grants to teachers and public schools to hold science fairs. [15]

De Geus and his wife Esther are regular donors to the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, and Planned Parenthood, and serve on the Silicon Valley Human Rights Watch Committee. [25] [26] [27]

De Geus frequently addresses climate change during keynotes and is a regular donor to the Environmental Defense Fund. [28] [29] He helped spearhead green initiatives at Synopsys, including investing in renewable energy sources in North America and India, which now represent about 50% of Synopsys’ North American electricity supply. [30]

He also was a key part of Synopsys’ commitment to become carbon neutral and limit global warming to 1.5 ° Celsius. [31]

Awards and Honors

Business and Semiconductor Industry

After becoming an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellow in 1999, he was honored for pioneering the commercial logic synthesis market, becoming the third recipient of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Industrial Pioneer Award in 2001. De Geus is the recipient of the 2007 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal for contributions to, and leadership in, the technology and business development of EDA.

Electronic Business magazine chose de Geus as one of "The 10 Most Influential Executives" of 2002. [32] [33] Also in 2002, shortly after handling the largest merger in electronic design automation history, de Geus was named CEO of the Year by Electronic Business magazine. In 2004 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year in IT for Northern California by Ernst & Young. The Electronic System Design Association (ESDA) awarded de Geus the 2008 Phil Kaufman Award for his business and technical impact on the EDA industry. In 2009, he received the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award. [34]

He was also awarded the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame Award in 2013, became a member of the National Academy of Engineering for leadership and technical contributions to logic synthesis for integrated circuits in 2019, and earned an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Glasgow in 2022. [11] [4] [35]

Community

In 2007, de Geus received the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) “Spirit of the Valley” Lifetime Achievement Award. [5]

In 2011, he accepted the Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network’s David Packard Award for civic entrepreneurship. [20]

Related Research Articles

Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together in a design flow that chip designers use to design and analyze entire semiconductor chips. Since a modern semiconductor chip can have billions of components, EDA tools are essential for their design; this article in particular describes EDA specifically with respect to integrated circuits (ICs).

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Synopsys, Inc. is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Synopsys supplies tools and services to the semiconductor design and manufacturing industry. Products include tools for logic synthesis and physical design of integrated circuits, simulators for development, and debugging environments that assist in the design of the logic for chips and computer systems. As of 2023, the company is a component of both the Nasdaq-100 and S&P 500 indices.

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References

  1. ↑ Singh, Jaspreet; Cherney, Max A. (16 August 2023). "Synopsys names insider Ghazi as CEO, forecasts stronger fourth quarter". Reuters. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  2. ↑ Vinn, Milana; Sen, Anirban; Nellis, Stephen (16 January 2024). "Synopsys seeks to acquire engineering software company Ansys-sources". Reuters. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  3. ↑ "profile: Aart de Geus". EETimes. 2001-01-30.
  4. 1 2 "University of Glasgow Honorary Degrees 2022". www.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  5. 1 2 "Aart J. De Geus - Director at Global Semiconductor Alliance". THE ORG. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Maestro Behind Design-Software Behemoth Synopsys - IEEE Spectrum". spectrum.ieee.org. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  7. ↑ Gregory, D.; Bartlett, K.; deGeus, A.; Hachtel, G. (1988-06-01). "SOCRATES: A system for automatically synthesizing and optimizing combinational logic". Papers on Twenty-five years of electronic design automation. 25 years of DAC. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 580–586. doi:10.1145/62882.62952. ISBN   978-0-89791-267-9.
  8. 1 2 Smith, Scott (2020-11-05). "Jazz Up Your Life With 'Pure Joy' Like The Synopsys CEO". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  9. ↑ Arkontaky, John (2007-10-19). "Aart de Geus: A Simple Question Yields A Complex Career". Electronic Design. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  10. ↑ Glaberson, William (August 16, 1988). "COMPANY NEWS; General Electric to Sell Its Chip Unit to Harris". The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  11. 1 2 3 Asia, ASPENCORE (2019-07-19). "Is De Geus the Most Important Person in EDA History?". EE Times Asia. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  12. ↑ "Synopsys Inc (SNPS) Reports Strong Fiscal 2023 Results with Revenue and Earnings Growth". Yahoo Finance. 2023-11-29. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  13. ↑ Marinissen, Erik Jan (October 2014). "Mr. Synopsys Speaks: The Aart of Tech-Onomic Orchestration of Adjacent Version". IEEE Xplore. doi:10.1109/MDAT.2014.2349277 . Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  14. ↑ Nenni, Daniel (2024-04-03). "A Brief History of Synopsys". Semiwiki. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  15. 1 2 3 Roberts, Bill (December 1, 2002). "The Aart of de Geus". EDN. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  16. ↑ MORETTI, GABE (2007-06-18). "Aart De Geus Awarded the 2007 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal". EE Times. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  17. ↑ "Hot Chips Symposium Sponsor Sneak-Peak: Intel, Synopsys, Flex Logix". hotchips.org. 2021-08-16. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  18. ↑ Chiappetta, Marco. "Innovation And The Implications Of The CHIPS And Science Act With Synopsys CEO". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  19. ↑ "Opening remarks for PCAST meeting" (PDF). White House. May 12, 2022.
  20. 1 2 "Aart de Geus wins 2011 David Packard Award". jointventure.org. Retrieved 2024-04-25.
  21. ↑ Savitz, Eric (August 16, 2023). "Synopsys Earnings Top Estimates. Founder Aart De Geus Stepping Down as CEO". Barron's. Retrieved May 3, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ↑ "Applied Materials Appoints Aart J. de Geus to Board of Directors". Applied Materials. July 24, 2007. Retrieved May 3, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ↑ Nenni, Daniel (2024-05-03). "An EDA AI Master Class by Synopsys CEO Aart de Geus". Semiwiki. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  24. ↑ "Dr. Aart J. de Geus". NAE Website. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  25. ↑ "Silicon Valley Committee | Human Rights Watch". www.hrw.org. 2016-12-05. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  26. ↑ "Annual Report 2022-2023". Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  27. ↑ "Donor List Pages" (PDF). Planned Parenthood. May 5, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (2007-11-01). "Synopsys leader's quiet impact". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2024-05-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ↑ "Our supporters". Environmental Defense Fund - 2020 Impact Report. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  30. ↑ "2022 ESG Report – Building a Smart Future Together | Synopsys Blog". www.synopsys.com. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  31. ↑ "Environment | Synopsys". www.synopsys.com. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  32. ↑ "Aart J. De Geus - Engineering and Technology History Wiki". 13 January 2016.
  33. ↑ "The 10 most influential executives". November 2005.
  34. ↑ "Aart J. De Geus - Director at Global Semiconductor Alliance". THE ORG. Retrieved 2024-04-25.
  35. ↑ "National Academy of Engineering Elects 86 Members and 18 Foreign Members". NAE Website. Retrieved 2024-04-25.
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