President, Chief Executive Officer, Director Synplicity, Inc. Elected 1998
Gary Meyers has been President and CEO of Synplicity since October 2004. During his tenure Synplicity has re-focused on its core FPGA products, improved operating margins from 1% in 2003 to over 10% in 2006, expanded international R&D efforts, and grown market share and customer satisfaction. Mr. Meyers joined Synplicity in January 1998 and served as vice president, worldwide sales since November 1999. In that role, Mr. Meyers was instrumental in increasing sales by more than a factor of ten and expanding the direct sales team throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
Prior to joining Synplicity, Mr. Meyers was the director of marketing for the Communication Products Division of LSI Logic Corporation. Mr. Meyers also spent seven years at LSI Logic in major account and geographic sales management roles. Before LSI Logic, Mr. Meyers worked as an ASIC designer at TRW, Inc.
Mr. Meyers holds a BSEE, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Maryland and an MBA from UCLA and serves on the board of directors of Synplicity and SpiraTech, Ltd.
has served as chairman and chief executive officer of iPolicy Networks, Inc. (formerly known as Duet Technologies, Inc.), a network security products company, since October 1998. From April 2001 to March 2003, Dr. Goel served as chairman and chief executive officer of Tharas Systems, Inc., an electronic automation company. From July 1993 to June 1996, Dr. Goel served as founder and chairman of Frontline Design Automation, a semiconductor design software company, which merged with Avant! Corporation in 1996. From January 1990 to December 1991, Dr. Goel also served as the president of the Advanced CAE Division of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. Dr. Goel holds Masters of Science and Doctorate degrees in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Co-founder, Chief Technical Officer, Vice President, Director Elected 1994
Ken McElvain is a co-founder of Synplicity, which he started with Alisa Yaffa in 1994. Mr. McElvain is responsible for new product strategy, developing innovative technologies and algorithms, and contributing to key development projects.
Mr. McElvain is the inventor and chief developer of many of the company's successful products and technologies, including the company's flagship product, Synplify, used by thousands of engineers worldwide to design programmable logic. He is also a key architect for Synplicity's other products including ASIC synthesis and physical synthesis, verification and physical implementation products.
Prior to starting Synplicity, Mr. McElvain worked as the principal architect of the AutoLogic ASIC synthesis tool at Mentor Graphics Corporation, which he began developing at Silicon Compilers, Inc. before it was acquired by Mentor Graphics. Before Silicon Compilers, Mr. McElvain worked as a CPU designer at Hewlett-Packard Company. His technical accomplishments over his career include: HDL synthesis, technology mapping and placement, physical synthesis, static timing verification, sequential ATPG, mixed switch and gate level simulation, early cycle-based simulation, extension languages and CPU design. Mr. McElvain holds 7 patents.
In October 2003, EE Times named Mr. McElvain one of 13 people who are influencing the course of development technology and taking it into realms that exceed the bounds set by the inventors of the transistor more than 50 years ago.
Mr. McElvain holds a BA in Mathematics and a BS in Computer Science from Washington State University.
has served as chief executive officer and president of Matrix Semiconductor, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, since September 2001 and has served on Matrix?s board of directors since February 1999. From December 1993 to September 2001, he has served in various capacities at Xilinx, Inc., a supplier of digital programmable logic solutions, including senior vice president and general manager of the Advanced Products Group. Mr. Segers served as a member of the board of directors of Xilinx from April 2000 to September 2001. Mr. Segers holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University.
recently retired as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Business Objects, S.A., a provider of business intelligence software, having served in that position from 1997 until December 2002. He currently serves on the boards of Saba Software, Inc., a provider of human capital development and management solutions, Advanced Analogic Technologies, Inc., a maker of analog and power semiconductors, Tesco Corporation (NASDAQ-TESOF), a Canadian oilfield services company, and SMART Modular Technologies (NASDAQ-SMOD). Mr. Weatherford previously held senior financial positions at NETCOM On-Line Communication Services, Inc., Logitech International S.A., Texas Instruments Inc, Schlumberger GmbH, and Tandem Computers Inc. in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Mr. Weatherford holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Houston.
Co-founder, Chairman of the Board, and Vice President, Intellectual Property Synplicity, Inc. Elected 1994
Alisa Yaffa is a co-founder of Synplicity, which she started with Ken McElvain in 1994. Since 1997 she has served as the company's chairman of the board. Ms. Yaffa is also responsible for advising on issues relating to internal intellectual property matters. From 1994 to 1996 Ms. Yaffa was the CEO of Synplicity, and at various times in its early days was responsible for sales, marketing and finance, holding the positions of vice president, sales, and vice president, marketing, and chief financial officer.
Ms. Yaffa holds the distinction of being the first woman co-founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of an Electronic Design Automation company started in the United States.
Prior to starting Synplicity, Ms. Yaffa worked in various technical and marketing roles at Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Mentor Graphics Corporation, EDA Systems, Inc., Amdahl Corporation and VLSI Technology, Inc.
Ms. Yaffa holds a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.
Paul Weiskopf as vice president of corporate development, leads a team that works closely with senior executives to strengthen Adobe's execution of its business strategies across all product and geographic areas. He manages the company's activities in the areas of corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and venture investing, helping Adobe's product businesses evaluate the options for building, buying or partnering to deliver the most complete solutions to customers and extend Adobe's market ecosystem. Since joining the company in March 2005, Weiskopf has played an instrumental role in the $3.4 billion acquisition of Macromedia, Inc., as well as a number of smaller acquisitions and venture investments. Prior to Adobe Systems, Weiskopf held the position of vice president of strategy and corporate development for Hewlett-Packard. Before HP, Weiskopf served as vice president for two e-commerce companies, InsWeb and BenefitPoint. Prior to that, he worked in strategic consulting for Accenture and L.E.K. Consulting.
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