Our Leaders

Aart de Geus - Synopsys

Since co-founding Synopsys in 1986, Dr. Aart de Geus has expanded Synopsys from a start-up synthesis enterprise to a world leader in electronic design automation (EDA).

Among the prestigious technology awards that Dr. de Geus has received is the honor of being named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in January 1999. He was honored for pioneering the commercial logic synthesis market with the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Industrial Pioneer Award in 2001, as well as for his “contributions to, and leadership in, the technology and business development of Electronic Design Automation” with the 2007 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal.

He has been singled out as an innovative business leader as well. In 2002, shortly after transacting the largest merger in EDA history, Dr. de Geus was named CEO of the Year by Electronic Business magazine. In November 2005, Electronic Business magazine selected Dr. de Geus as one of “The 10 Most Influential Executives.” In November of 2007, he was awarded the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) “Spirit of the Valley” Lifetime Achievement Award. And in October 2008, he was presented with the Phil Kaufman Award for distinguished contributions to EDA.

Dr. de Geus is active in the business community as a member of the board of Applied Materials, SVLG, TechNet, the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), and the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC).

His opinions are sought after by the semiconductor and design industries, as he has been an invited plenary speaker at many industry conferences, including ASP-DAC, the Design Automation Conference, DesignCon, the European Microelectronics Summit, the FSA Suppliers Expo, the International Electronics Forum, the International Symposium on Physical Design, the International Symposium on Quality in Electronic Design, the International Test Conference, SemiconWest, SEMI ITPC, and the TSMC Technology Symposium.

Dr. de Geus is also heavily involved in education for the next generation, having created in 1999 the Synopsys Outreach Foundation, which promotes project-based science and math learning throughout Silicon Valley.