Management Team
Dr. Aart de Geus - Chairman and co-Chief Executive Officer
Since co-founding Synopsys in 1986, Aart has expanded Synopsys from a start-up synthesis company to a global high-tech leader. He has long been considered one of the world's leading experts on logic synthesis and simulation, and frequently keynotes major conferences in electronics and design automation. Dr. de Geus has been widely recognized for his technical, business, and community achievements with multiple awards including Electronic Business Magazine's "CEO of the Year," the IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal, the GSA Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award, the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame Award, and the SVLG Lifetime Achievement Award. He serves on the Boards of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Applied Materials, the Global Semiconductor Alliance, and the Electronic System Design Alliance.
Dr. Chi-Foon Chan - President and co-Chief Executive Officer
As Synopsys' co-CEO, Chi-Foon shares responsibility for crafting vision and strategy, leading the company, and ensuring execution excellence in support of our customers' success. As the company's President and COO, a role he held for 14 years prior to his 2012 appointment to President and co-CEO, he guided internal operations and worldwide field organizations. Chi-Foon joined Synopsys in 1990 as Vice President of Applications and Services where he helped build the Technical Field organization. He has sponsored several key initiatives such as entering the IP market, and he personally facilitated key acquisitions such as Avanti, Virage Logic, Magma Design Automation, and SpringSoft. In 2014 he led Synopsys' entry into the software testing market with the acquisition of Coverity, and into the software security market with the acquisition of Codenomicon. Prior to Synopsys, Chi-Foon contributed to industry-leading companies like NEC Corporation, where he was General Manager of the microprocessor group, responsible for marketing all NEC chip devices in North America. Prior to NEC, he was an engineering manager at Intel Corporation. He holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University; and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University.
Trac Pham - Chief Financial Officer
Trac serves as our Chief Financial Officer and is responsible for Finance, Information Technology, Business Operations, and Strategy and Corporate Business Development. Previously, he was Vice President of Corporate Finance and Vice President of Financial Planning and Strategy at Synopsys. During his tenure, Trac has helped Synopsys achieve profitable growth by developing strategic and operating plans that prioritize investments across multiple business units. Before joining Synopsys in 2006, he held leadership roles in strategy and business development and finance at Juniper Networks. Earlier in his career, Trac was sales controller, division controller, and finance and accounting manager for multiple business groups at 3Com. He holds a BA, Economics from UC Berkeley and an MPIA from UC San Diego where he was a Schoepflin Fellow. He is an active status California CPA.
Jan Collinson - Human Resources and Facilities Officer
People. Passion. Performance. This is the banner under which Jan leads Synopsys' global Human Resources and Facilities/Real Estate professional teams, also known as TeamHR. Identifying the right talent—with that spark of curiosity and passion, capable of addressing the world's toughest technical challenges—that's TeamHR's mission. Jan's commitment to Synopsys has spanned two decades and resulted in three distinct careers: Facilities management, Real Estate management, and since 2003, Human Resources management. Having joined Synopsys in 1990, she has played key roles in talent strategy development, acquisition integration, and deploying critical programs and processes in support of Synopsys employees (also known as "Synopsoids") and their performance. Jan was honored to represent Synopsys as a recipient of a 2008 YWCA Twin Award. Prior to joining Synopsys, she enjoyed several roles in both start-up and established companies. She received a bachelor's degree from California State University – Fresno (Go Bull Dogs!).
Rick Runkel - General Counsel
Rick joined Synopsys as General Counsel in May 2014. In this role, he manages and oversees all legal matters and corporate affairs for Synopsys and serves as Corporate Secretary. From October 2008 to March 2013, Rick served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Affymetrix, a leading developer of genomic analysis tools. He served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Intuitive Surgical, Inc., a provider of minimally-invasive robotic surgery technology, from 2006 to 2007. From 2004 to 2005, Rick served as Senior Vice President of Business Development and General Counsel of VISX Incorporated, a provider of laser vision correction technology, and as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from 2001 to 2004. Prior to that, he was a partner at the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP for eleven years, where he specialized in complex commercial litigation and served as managing partner of the firm's San Francisco office. Rick holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Joe Logan - Sales and Corporate Marketing Officer
Joe joined Synopsys in 2001 as head of Sales for the North America East region. In his current position, he is responsible for the Worldwide Sales organization, which is focused on bringing the company's high-value software tools, IP, and design service solutions to market, and building strategic business relationships based on enabling our customers' success. Prior to Synopsys, he spent five years at Avanti Corporation where he was head of North American Sales and Support. Joe has more than 20 years of engineering and sales experience in the EDA/electronics industry, and holds a B.S.E.E. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Deirdre Hanford - Chief Security Officer, Corporate Staff
Deirdre serves as the Chief Security Officer for Synopsys. In this role, she works collaboratively to safeguard Synopsys. In addition, she leads efforts to drive industry awareness and enablement for secure design from software to silicon to support our business in EDA, IP and Software Integrity. She previously served as co-general manager of Synopsys’ Design Group, responsible for leading the development and deployment of our physical design, implementation, and analog/mixed-signal product lines. Deirdre has held a number of positions at Synopsys since joining the company in 1987, including leadership roles in customer engagement, applications engineering, sales, and marketing. She earned a B.S.E.E. from Brown University and an M.S.E.E. from UC Berkeley. In 2001, Deirdre was a recipient of the YWCA Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award and the Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award. Ms. Hanford served as the Chairman of American Electronics Association in 2008. She currently chairs Brown University's Engineering Advisory Committee and serves on the Engineering Advisory Board for UC Berkeley's College of Engineering. Deirdre also serves on the Board of Directors of Cirrus Logic, Inc.
Sassine Ghazi - General Manager Design Group, Corporate Staff
Sassine first joined Synopsys in 1998, and currently serves as the general manager of the Design Group. In this role, he leverages his background in design, applications, sales and executive management to lead DG on a path where we continue to push our innovation, differentiation, and vitality to deliver on our critical business goals. He has held several technical and management positions in field operations, including VP of North America Sales where he was focused on building strategic business relationships to drive customer success. Prior to joining Synopsys, Sassine was a design engineer at Intel. Before that, he led a joint research project in Variable Structure Control and Reconfiguration Computing at the Oak Ridge National Lab. Sassine received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Lebanese American University; a B.S.E.E from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1993; and an M.S.E.E. from the University of Tennessee in 1995.
Manoj Gandhi - General Manager Verification Group, Corporate Staff
Manoj joined Synopsys with the company's merger with Viewlogic in December 1997. In his current position, he and his organization are responsible for Synopsys' verification solutions including simulation, prototyping, emulation, debug, verification IP, and static and formal technologies as part of the Verification Continuum Platform. He has more than 30 years of HDL simulation and verification experience, having begun his EDA career at Gateway Design Automation in 1986. Manoj has a B. Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dr. Howard Ko - General Manager Silicon Engineering Group, Corporate Staff
Howard joined Synopsys in June 2002 and is currently general manager of the Silicon Engineering Group. He manages products and solutions that address semiconductor manufacturing technology needs. These solutions include TCAD, yield management, fracturing, and lithography. In his previous role as vice president of Sales, Asia Pacific, Howard built a continuously increasing revenue stream, improved Synopsys' leadership position in the region, and increased collaboration with leading foundries. Before joining Synopsys, he served as Avanti's executive operating officer since July 2001. Previously, he was general manager of Avanti's mixed technology division and head of the system product line. Howard has also held senior management roles at Analogy, Inc. and Mentor Graphics. Dr. Ko received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and graduated with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the National Taiwan University.
Joachim Kunkel - General Manager Solutions Group, Corporate Staff
Joachim joined Synopsys in 1994 and serves as general manager of the Solutions Group. In this capacity, he oversees the business unit responsible for Synopsys DesignWare intellectual property (IP). Before joining Synopsys, Joachim was co-founder of CADIS GmbH in Aachen, Germany. There, he served as managing director and performed myriad duties in engineering, sales, and marketing. Before co-founding CADIS he was a research assistant at the Aachen University of Technology, where he conducted research in system-level simulation techniques for digital signal processing, with special emphasis on parallel computing. Joachim holds an M.S.E.E. degree, the Dipl.-Ing. der Nachrichtentechnik, from the Aachen University of Technology.
Dr. Andreas Kuehlmann - co-General Manager Software Integrity Group, Corporate Staff
Andreas is co-general manager of the Software Integrity Group at Synopsys. In this role, he is responsible for leading the company's software quality and security solutions business, which is focused on products and services for ensuring the security and improving the quality of all software that is omnipresent in our lives. Prior to joining Synopsys in 2014 as part of the Coverity acquisition, Andreas served as senior vice president of research and development at Coverity, where he was responsible for global R&D activities. From 2003 to 2010, he served as Fellow and Director of Cadence Research Laboratories, where he led the company's advanced research and development including systems and software verification technologies. Prior to Cadence, he was part of the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. His work on functional equivalence verification was key to the development of IBM's high-end processors and was later broadly adopted by the industry. Andreas has served as an adjunct professor at University of California, Berkeley, and as President of the IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree and the Dr.-Ing. habil degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology at Ilmenau, Germany, and he is an IEEE Fellow.
Steve McDonald - co-General Manager Software Integrity Group, Corporate Staff
Steve is responsible for leading Synopsys’ software security and quality solutions business, which is focused on products and services that ensure the security and improve the quality of all software that is omnipresent in our lives. Steve joined Synopsys in 2002 as head of IP and system sales. He then drove the sales of software security products and services for the Software Integrity Group as senior vice president of worldwide sales. Prior to his tenure at Synopsys, Steve served as vice president of sales for Simplex Solutions (public offering in 2001). He started his career in the semiconductor manufacturing (lithography) industry and later spent three years specializing in EDA software tool and cell library development. Steve has more than 25 years of sales and sales management experience in the electronics industry and is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. He holds a BSEE from the University of Salford, Manchester, England.
Chekib Akrout - Corporate Vice President, Strategic Programs
Chekib is Corporate Vice President, Strategic Programs, responsible for driving artificial intelligence and machine learning strategic initiatives at Synopsys. Chekib joined the company in 2018. He has more than 35 years of experience in semiconductor and microprocessor development. Prior to joining Synopsys, Chekib was with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for 10 years. Most recently as Senior Vice President, Global Operations, he led supply chain, procurement, technology development, quality, and platform and product engineering across all AMD business groups. Before that, as Senior Vice President, Infrastructure and Engineering, he oversaw platform and product engineering, design methodology, and IT. In his role as Senior Vice President, Business Transformation, he participated in AMD turnaround. He was also responsible for system architecture research, performance analysis, design packaging, microprocessor core development, and design methodology development. Prior to his tenure at AMD, Chekib served in various VP and GM roles at Freescale Semiconductor (NXP) and IBM. At Freescale, he led the company’s networking system division, a $1.1 billion per-year business. At IBM, he drove the company’s microprocessor development projects. Chekib has a bachelor’s degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Physics and Electronics.
Madeline Chan - Corporate Vice President, Sales Operations and Strategy Development
Madeline joined Synopsys in March 2004 and is currently Corporate Vice President, Operations and Strategy Development for the Sales and Corporate Marketing Group. Prior to Synopsys, she led business planning at both start-up and technology companies, including Hewlett Packard and Digital Island. Earlier in her career, Madeline was at The Boston Consulting Group, and held multiple finance and planning positions at General Electric as a graduate of GE’s Financial Management Program. She holds a BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from The Harvard Business School.
Dave DeMaria - Corporate Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Dave is Corporate Vice President of Corporate Marketing, responsible for digital marketing, corporate communications, and leading Synopsys’ automotive focus. In addition, he leads the strategic planning process and market research for Synopsys. Dave joined Synopsys in 2013 as Vice President of Marketing for Verification products. He has more than 30 years of experience in the EDA, IP, Semiconductor and Enterprise Software markets. Prior to Synopsys, Dave held senior executive positions spanning CEO, EVP/GM of Business Units and VP/SVP Marketing at Cadence Design Systems, MoSys, Apache, Optimal, Viewlogic, Agile Software and MatrixOne. Dave went to Boston University for a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering.
Dr. Paul Lo - Corporate Vice President, Design Group
Paul is a corporate vice president in Synopsys' Design Group. He previously served as senior vice president and general manager of the Analog/Mixed-Signal Group from September 2006 to February 2014; vice president of engineering in the Implementation Group from November 2002 to September 2006; and senior vice president of International Strategy from June 2002 to November 2002. Paul joined Synopsys in June 2002 with the acquisition of Avanti Corporation, where he served as president from July 2001 to June 2002 and held a variety of positions including chief operating officer, head of engineering, head of Asia engineering, and key architect in product development. He has also held positions at Cadence Design Systems, Quickturn Design Systems, and Hughes Aircraft Microelectronics Center. Paul holds a B.S.E.E. from the National Taiwan University, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Hasmukh Ranjan - Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Hasmukh joined Synopsys in 1997 and has risen through the ranks to the Corporate Vice President and CIO position. As CIO, he leads the Information Technology (IT) team and has responsibility for all facets of IT, including strategy, applications, infrastructure, security, support and execution. This includes global installations of SAP-based application infrastructure and integrated IT landscape, an engineering infrastructure consisting of 300,000 compute cores, 40 petabytes of storage, seven major data centers, and 120+ field offices around the world that are secured with industry standard tools and practices. During Hasmukh’s tenure at Synopsys, he has achieved a “Top 500” supercomputing rank for Synopsys and leveraged High Performance Computing technology for EDA. He also oversaw the implementation of GRID computing for engineering, lead the charge for Synopsys to support and embrace multi-core technology, a Distributed Processing Library used in many of Synopsys’ tools, and also developed strategic vendor partnerships. Hasmukh led several corporate initiatives for new license and revenue model implementations, M&A integration and process transformations. Hasmukh also is the driver for the Machine Learning and Cloud initiative at Synopsys. Hasmukh earned his bachelor’s in Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, his master’s in Computer Science from Northeastern University, and his MBA in Management from Northwestern University.