IMPACT Conference Speakers

Steve Teig, President and CTO, Tabula

Steve Teig is the President and Chief Technology Officer of Tabula and the inventor of Tabula’s Spacetime 3-Dimensional Programmable Logic Architecture. In 2012, Tabula has been recognized with an Edison Award, an American Business Gold Award, inclusion in MIT’s “TR50” list of the 50 most innovative companies worldwide, and as #3 in the Wall Street Journal’s “Next Big Thing” list of the most promising venture-backed startup companies. Prior to founding Tabula, Steve Teig was CTO of Cadence Design Systems. Steve joined Cadence through its acquisition of Simplex Solutions, where he was also CTO. At Simplex, Steve invented and led the technology development for the X Architecture, which radically improves chip design by pervasively incorporating diagonal wiring.
Before joining Simplex, Steve co-founded two successful biotechnology companies: CombiChem (later acquired by DuPont Pharmaceuticals), and BioCAD.  In the 1980s, Steve spent several years in the EDA industry, where his work had a major impact still felt today. Steve received a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University. He holds over 240 patents. In 2002, he broke Thomas Edison’s record for the number of patents filed by an individual in a single year. In 2011, he was awarded the World Technology Award for IT hardware innovation.

John Koeter, Vice President of Marketing for the Solutions Group, Synopsys

John Koeter joined Synopsys in 1998 and is currently Vice President of Marketing for the Solutions Group. In that capacity, he is responsible for the marketing of Synopsys' DesignWare® Intellectual Property (IP), Professional Services and System-Level Design products. Before coming to Synopsys, Mr. Koeter held marketing, engineering, and corporate application engineering positions with Texas Instruments and Advanced Micro Devices. Mr. Koeter holds a BSEE degree from Cornell University.

Chris Rowen, Fellow, Cadence

Dr. Chris Rowen is a Cadence Fellow He joined Cadence after the acquisition of Tensilica, the company he founded in July 1997. Initially, he was president and CEO of Tensilica; more recently he was Chief Technology Officer, instrumental in the design architectures for Tensilica’s baseband and imaging products.  He was a pioneer in the development of RISC architecture at Stanford in the early 80s and helped start MIPS Computer Systems Inc. in 1984, where he served in a variety of functions including as Vice President for Microprocessor Development. When Silicon Graphics purchased MIPS, he became the technology and market development leader for Silicon Graphics Europe. In 1996, he became Synopsys’ Vice President and General Manager of the Design Reuse Group. He received a B.A. in physics from Harvard University and M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Mahesh Tirupattur, Executive Vice President, Analog Bits

Mahesh Tirupattur is the Executive Vice President at Analog Bits responsible for business partnerships, IP licensing, and joint venture development. He has helped lead Analog Bits to its position as the leader in integrated timing and interface IP.
Prior to Analog Bits, Mr. Tirupattur held executive level positions leading IP and library companies. He earned his MSEE from Arizona State and a business degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Warren Savage, President & CEO, IPextreme

Warren Savage is a well-known and perhaps one of the most recognizable figures in the semiconductor industry. He has spent his entire career in Silicon Valley working with leading companies including Fairchild Semiconductor, Tandem Computers, and Synopsys where he focused on the problem of building a global scalable semiconductor IP business. In 2004, he founded, and still leads IPextreme in the mission of unlocking and monetizing captive intellectual property held within semiconductor companies and making it available to customers all over the world. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Steve Singer, Director of Systems Engineering, Embedded Security Solutions, INSIDE Secure

Steve Singer began his embedded security career at SafeNet, a forerunner of the Embedded Security Solutions group, in January 2001 as a Staff ASIC Design Engineer where he worked on a development team responsible for building leading edge security processors.

Today, Mr. Singer, as the Director of Systems Engineering, is directly responsible for pre-sales as well as supporting product management and marketing for the company’s portfolio of mobile and networking embedded security solutions.

Mr. Singer has more than a decade of experience in semiconductor, networking and embedded security industries. He has a BS/MS in Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jason Polychronopoulos, Product Manager for Verification IP, Mentor Graphics

Robert Krohn, Vice President, O&EM, Network Operating Systems Technology Group, Cisco

Robert Krohn is Vice President of the Open Networking Environment (ONE) and Embedded Manageability organization within the Network Operating Systems Technology Group at Cisco.  In this role, Krohn is the executive responsible Cisco’s Software Defined Networking (SDN) strategic initiative, called Cisco ONE, leading efforts across the Company to develop and execute on a SDN strategy.  Partnering closely with all Cisco businesses, he leads development efforts for the onePK (ONE Platform Kit), SDN controller strategy, embedded ONE Agents, and embedded manageability across all of Cisco's operating systems and networking products. 

With over 20 years of systems engineering, management, and executive experience in software, hardware, and operations across diverse product segments, Krohn is known for building world-class engineering teams and his ability to execute and achieve results.

Krohn joins NOSTG from Juniper Networks where he was most recently SVP/GM of the Edge Software Business Unit developing software products for the edge of the network for fixed and mobile service providers.   In that role, he managed the development of the next generation of software services platform(s) leveraging SDN and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) technologies.  Prior to his role in Edge Software, he was VP/GM of Juniper's Router Services Business Unit.   Some of his entrepreneurial ventures included startups in the mobile and online services space, and then running engineering and operations at zvents.com, a local search startup.   Before that he held key positions at Nexsi Systems, EFI and Xerox AODS (PARC).

Robert has spent the last 20 years living in Silicon Valley in California after growing up in Australia.  His is a graduate of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia with a degree in Digital Systems and Computer Engineering.

Ron Moore, Director of Strategic Accounts Marketing for PIPD, ARM

Ron Moore is responsible for collaboration programs with foundry partners and lead customers engagements for advanced process technologies.  Ron has held management positions in Systems Engineering, Silicon Design Services, and Central Engineering.   

Ron holds a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from Southeastern State University.  

Grant Pierce, CEO, Sonics

Grant A. Pierce co-founded Sonics in September 1996 and has served as its chief executive officer and president since March 1997 and as chairman of the board of directors since February 1997. From 1990 to 1996, Mr. Pierce served as chief financial officer and vice president and general manager for MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc., a digital media and communications devices company.  Prior to that, Mr. Pierce was chief financial officer at ParcPlace Systems and corporate controller for MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. Mr. Pierce received a BS in business administration-accounting from California State University, Hayward and is a former certified public accountant.

John O'Neill, Vice President of Marketing, Skyworks

Kent Shimasaki, Managing Partner, Infinitedge

Kent Shimasaki focuses on Merger and Acquisition advisory services. Previously he spent ten years as a Managing Director of technology investment banking at Nollenberger Capital and Instream Partners where he provided M&A advisory services to companies in the technology sector including Micram, Obsidian Software, Cypress, Silverback Systems, Lightstorm Networks, Cavium, Virtio, Azanda Networks, and Stargen. He holds series 24, 7, 79, & 63 licenses.

Previously, Mr. Shimasaki was Director of Cadence Ventures, where he invested in companies including Cortina Systems, Quake Technologies, Fulcrum Microelectronics and Azanda Networks. He also held various technical management positions at Unisys and Boeing where he was involved in advanced semiconductor design. Earlier in his career, Mr. Shimasaki founded Seattle Silicon, one of the leading Electronic Design Companies that developed some of the industry's first commercial IC design tools.

Mr. Shimasaki graduated Magna Cum Laude from Arizona State University where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.

Suk Lee, Director, Design Infrastructure Marketing Division, TSMC

Suk Lee was appointed director of TSMC’s Design Infrastructure Marketing Division in September 2010, having joined TSMC a year earlier as director of Business Development for the Design Technology Platform Division. Prior to TSMC, Suk was Vice President and General Manager of Magma’s Custom Design Business Unit. He has more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor and EDA industries, having filled management roles in engineering, marketing and general management at LSI Logic, Texas Instruments, Cadence, and Magma. Suk received his BSEE from MIT and his MSEE from the University of Toronto.

Jim Feldhan, President, Semico Research Corp.

Kurt Shuler, Vice President of Marketing, Arteris

Kurt Shuler serves as the Vice President of Marketing for Arteris, Inc., the inventor and leading supplier of network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP solutions. In addition to his critical role at Arteris, Kurt also serves on the Board of Directors for Silicon Leadership, a non-profit organization that trains 30 people/year for service as elected or appointed officials in local, county and state government.

Prior to joining Arteris, Kurt held several key marketing, sales and design roles at ARC Int'l, Virtio, Texas Instruments, and Intel Corporation. He served as a navigator and electronic warfare officer, Special Operations Forces, United States Air Force and was deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq.

Kurt received his MBA from MIT Sloan and a BS from the United States Air Force Academy.