Executive Management

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
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). As a technology visionary, he is frequently asked to speak on topics related to the electronics industry. As one of the leading experts on logic simulation and logic synthesis, Dr. de Geus was made a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in January 1999. He was also honored for pioneering the commercial logic synthesis market by being named the third recipient ever to receive the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Industrial Pioneer Award. In 2002, shortly after transacting the largest merger in EDA history, Dr. de Geus was named CEO of the Year by Electronic Business magazine; and in 2004, Entrepreneur of the Year in IT for Northern California by Ernst & Young. In November 2005, Electronic Business magazine chose Dr. de Geus as one of "The 10 Most Influential Executives." Dr. de Geus is active in the business community as a member of the board of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), TechNet, the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), and as Chairman of the Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC). He 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.

President and Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Chi-Foon Chan shares responsibility for running the company with Synopsys Chairman and CEO Dr. Aart de Geus. Dr. Chan is focused on driving the company's internal operations and worldwide field organization. He joined Synopsys in 1990 as Vice President of Applications and Services. Previously at NEC Corporation, Dr. Chan was General Manager of the microprocessor group, responsible for marketing all NEC chip devices in North America. Prior to NEC, Dr. Chan was an engineering manager at Intel Corporation. He holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Chief Financial Officer
Brian Beattie joined Synopsys as Chief Financial Officer in January 2006, bringing over 25 years of financial operations and management experience to the company. Mr. Beattie is responsible for Finance, Information Technology, Business Operations and Legal. The Finance team includes the controllers group, treasury, internal audit, tax, mergers and acquisitions, financial planning and analysis and investor relations. Prior to joining Synopsys, Mr. Beattie served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration at SupportSoft since October 1999. He took the company from a start up to public entity in 2000 and was instrumental in growing the business from $6 million to more than $60 million in annual revenues during his six years at the company. Mr. Beattie began his career at Nortel Networks Corporation where he served for 19 years in a number of financial and operational roles. Over the years he had increasing corporate responsibilities and rose to become the finance executive responsible for the company’s merger and acquisition strategy and previously was the group vice president of Nortel’s multi-billion dollar PBX business as well as responsibility for operations in the Enterprise business unit with over 5000 employees. Mr. Beattie earned both his Bachelor of Commerce degree and MBA in International Finance and Management from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Brian Cabrera manages and oversees all legal matters for Synopsys and serves as corporate secretary. He joined Synopsys from Callidus Software Inc., where he took the company public in 2003 and served most recently as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. Prior to joining Callidus, Mr. Cabrera ran the worldwide field legal organization as Chief Operations Counsel for PeopleSoft. Prior to PeopleSoft, he was Senior Counsel for Netscape, Legal Counsel at Silicon Graphics Inc., and a litigator with the law firm of Bronson, Bronson & McKinnon in San Francisco. Mr. Cabrera has also held positions with the California Attorney General's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Southern California, as well as a Juris Doctorate from the USC Law School.

Senior Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Development
John Chilton is responsible for all of the company's marketing functions, including Product Marketing, Solutions Marketing, Corporate Marketing, Corporate Development, Strategy, and Planning. Prior to his current role, Mr. Chilton served as General Manager of Synopsys’ IP, Professional Services, and System Level Design Businesses. Prior to Synopsys, Mr. Chilton served as CEO of Arkos Design, which was acquired by Synopsys in 1995, and Datalogic/EMS, an early producer of RFID technology. Mr. Chilton holds a B.S.E.E. from UCLA and an M.S.E.E. from USC.

Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Facilities
Jan Collinson joined Synopsys in 1990 as Facilities Manager for the Mountain View headquarters. In her current position of Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Facilities, she is focused on enhancing the Company's competitive advantage by providing extraordinary work environments, and attracting, engaging and retaining individuals who have a passion to excel. Since joining Synopsys in May 1990, Ms. Collinson and her team have actively supported the aggressive growth of the company, while facilitating frequent Merger and Acquisition activity. In her previous position of Vice President, Real Estate and Facilities, she managed the company's portfolio of 60+ sites in 20 countries. Ms. Collinson holds a BS degree in Human Resources from California State University-Fresno.

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Implementation Group
Dr. Antun Domic joined Synopsys in April of 1997. In his current position, Dr. Domic manages the Implementation Group, responsible for Synopsys' flagship synthesis and physical design solutions, test automation, signal integrity, power analysis and timing and formal verification products. Dr. Domic holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Chile.

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Verification Group
Manoj Gandhi joined Synopsys with the company's merger with Viewlogic in December 1997. In his current position, Mr. Gandhi and his organization are responsible for Synopsys' verification solutions, including simulation, testbench automation, hybrid formal verification, and system level design. Mr. Gandhi has over 15 years of HDL simulation and verification experience having begun his EDA career at Gateway Design Automation in 1986. He has a B.S. 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.

Senior Vice President, Global Technical Services
Deirdre Hanford is Senior Vice President, Global Technical Services at Synopsys, Inc. Her organization's mission is to ensure the successful adoption of the company's technology into customers' demanding environments. Having earned a BSEE from Brown University and an MSEE from U.C. Berkeley, Ms. Hanford joined Synopsys in 1987 and has held a variety of positions, including leadership roles in applications engineering, sales and marketing. In 2001, Ms. Hanford was a recipient of the YWCA Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award. That year she also received the Marie R. Pistilli Women in EDA Achievement Award. She currently sits on the American Electronics Association's national board of directors and the Technical Advisory Board for University of California at Berkeley College of Engineering.

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Silicon Engineering Group
Dr. Howard Ko joined Synopsys in June 2002 and is currently Senior Vice President and 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, Dr. Ko built a continuously increasing revenue stream, improved Synopsys’ leadership position in the region, and increased collaboration with leading foundries. Before joining Synopsys, Dr. Ko served as Avant!’s executive operating officer since July 2001. Previously, he was general manager of Avant!’s mixed technology division and head of the system product line. Dr. Ko 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.

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Solutions Group
Joachim Kunkel joined Synopsys in 1994 and is currently senior vice president and general manager of the Solutions Group. In that capacity, he manages the business units responsible for Synopsys DesignWare® intellectual property (IP), strategic market development and system-level design. Before coming to Synopsys, Mr. Kunkel 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, Mr. Kunkel 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. Mr. Kunkel holds an MSEE degree, the Dipl.-Ing. der Nachrichtentechnik, from the Aachen University of Technology.

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Analog/Mixed Signal Group
Dr. Paul Lo has served as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Analog/Mixed Signal Group since September 2006. He was previously Vice President of Engineering, Implementation Group from November 2002 to September 2006, and Senior Vice President of International Strategy from June 2002 to November 2002. In June 2002, Dr. Lo joined Synopsys with the acquisition of Avant! Corporation, where he had served as President from July 2001 to June 2002, and had held a variety of positions including Chief Operating Officer, Head of Engineering, Head of Asia Engineering and key Architect in product development. Dr. Lo has also held positions at Cadence Design Systems, Quickturn Design Systems, and Hughes Aircraft Microelectronics Center. Dr. Lo 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.

Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales
Joe Logan 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, Mr. Logan spent five years at Avant! Corporation where he was head of North American Sales and Support. Mr. Logan has over 20 years of engineering and sales experience in the EDA/electronics industry, and holds a BSEE (Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.