NMI currently has thirteen members on the executive board of directors. The role of the board is to ensure NMI's activities are aligned to the interests of its members and operates within legal limits.

Biographies of each of the directors can be accessed using the links below.

• David Wollen, Chairman of the NMI Board
• Dr. Derek Boyd, Chief Executive Officer, NMI
• Stuart Langdon, European Facilities Director, International Rectifier 
  
• Patrick McNamee, Vice President of Silicon Operations, Nujira
  
• Ivor Evans, Vice President of Product Engineering, CSR plc.
  
• Dr. Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive Officer, Imagination Technologies
  
• Professor Anthony O'Neill, Newcastle University
• Paul Meredith, Site and Operations Manager, NXP Semiconductors
• Ian Phillips, Principal Staff Engineer, ARM
• Liam Blackwell, ICT Theme Leader, EPSRC
• Jan Reid, Manager, Enabling Technologies, Scottish Enterprise
• Mark Glover, Director Business Planning, Technology Strategy Board
• Don Nicolson, Managing Director, Semi Scenic UK Ltd
• Geoff Barrett, MDAB Chair, Technical Director, Broadcom Broadband Communications Group

 

David Wollen, Chairman of the NMI Board

David Wollen has over 30 years experience in the semiconductor and computer industries in both large corporations and start-ups in different countries. He works with a number of companies at Board level as NED and Advisor and was most recently CEO of Elonics. His previous position was CEO of Innovision Research & Technology plc until managing its acquisition by Broadcom Corporation in 2010. For the previous 8 years he held main Board positions at Renesas Technology Europe, Hitachi Europe and Hitachi Microsystems, where he was General Manager of the Mobile and Smartcard Business units and Marketing Director for the company. Before that he was, for 10 years, General Manager of Dialog Semiconductor, which he initially joined as the founding Marketing Director and where he also established and ran the US organisation for a number of years. David's career prior to this includes several VC-backed start-up activities in Europe and the USA and for 9 years he held senior business and engineering management positions at Texas Instruments and DEC. At TI he led marketing for VLSI activities in Europe, including launching TI's DSP and microprocessor families. At Digital Equipment Corp. he ran specialised UK marketing. Prior to this he was at Marconi Space & Defence Systems working on satellite communications. David has degrees in Physics and in Computer Science, both from Imperial College, London.

 

Dr. Derek Boyd, CEO, NMI

Derek graduated in 1984 with a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and completed a Master of Business Administration in 1994. He has been with NMI since October 2001, firstly in a Business Consultant role, then as Chief Executive since April 2003. Derek has broad experience in the electronics and semiconductor industries coming from a background in Compaq, National Semiconductor and NEC. In 2010 the University of Glasgow awarded him the prestigious D.Univ for his services to the UK semiconductor industry and support for university research.

Stuart Langdon, European Facilities Director, International Rectifier

Stuart received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and then went on to complete an MSc in Facilities Management. He has 18 years Semiconductor experience and has held various Facilities and Management roles at Plessey Semiconductors, GEC, and Zarlink. He currently holds the position of European Facilities Director at International Rectifier, Newport, South Wales and is Chairman of IR’s world wide Facilities Council. 

Patrick McNamee, Vice President of Silicon Operations,  Nujira

                                 Patrick joined Nujira as vice president of silicon operations in 2011 A 25-year industry veteran, Patrick spent more than 15 years in a variety of senior management positions in the fabless semiconductor sector. He joined Powervation from Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) where he served as vice president of product engineering. Prior to that he was a product engineering manager with Dialog Semiconductor and before that, he served as principal product engineer for GEC Plessey Semiconductor. His prior experience also includes engineering positions with National Semiconductor. Patrick is a director and board member of NMI. He holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in electronics from Glasgow Caledonian University, and a postgraduate diploma in advanced manufacturing systems from Brunel University.

Ivor Evans, Vice President of Product Engineering, CSR plc.

Ivor joined Cambridge Silicon Radio in April 2001. He was born in London and graduated in 1984 with a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Sussex. He began his career at the GEC Hirst Research Centre that year working on the development of a 1.5µm silicon-on-sapphire process with emphasis on process integration and device modelling. In 1988 he left GEC to join LSI Logic Ltd as they ramped up their UK facility. In 1991 he moved on to Austrian Micro-Systems in Austria working on the modelling and specification of their mixed-signal CMOS and BICMOS technology platforms. He joined CSR in April 2001, where he is now VP of Product Engineering. Mr Evans is a member of the IEEE.

Dr. Hossein Yassaie, Chief Executive Officer, Imagination Technologies

After attaining his PhD, Hossein was a research fellow at the University of Birmingham. Prior to joining Imagination Technologies in February 1992, he was with STMicroelectronics and Inmos for eight years, where he set up and managed the DSP and digital video developments. Ultimately he became responsible for the system divisions, including research and development, manufacturing and marketing. Hossein joined the Imagination Technologies in 1992 as CTO, joined the Board in 1995, and became CEO in 1998.

Professor Anthony O'Neill, Newcastle University

Anthony O'Neill is Siemens Professor at Newcastle University, having joined in 1986 from Plessey Research (Caswell) Ltd. In 1994 he was Visiting Scientist at MIT and pioneered their work on strained Si MOSFETs.  In 2002 he became a Royal Society Industry Fellow with Atmel.  He was visiting professor at EPFL (Switzerland) in 2009.  He is the director of nanoLAB, Newcastle’s nano science and technology research centre, a Fellow of the IET and a director of the National Microelectronics Institute.  He took a leading role in establishing eFutures (http://www.eFutures.ac.uk), an EPSRC network aiming to maximise the impact of UK electronics research.  His research interests include: strained silicon and silicon carbide technologies; integrating new materials with nanoelectronics; and interconnects for integrated circuits.

Paul Meredith, Site and Operations Manager, NXP Semiconductors

Paul graduated in Electrical Engineering and Electronics from UMIST in 1979. He joined Philips Semiconductors, now NXP Semiconductors, as a Process Engineer. He has held a number of senior Engineering and Operational Management positions with Philips/NXP and headed the Power Business Supply Chain Organisation prior to his appointment to his current role in 2006. Paul has been involved with the NMI since its inception and has previously served as a Director between 2002 and 2004.

Ian Phillips, Principal Staff Engineer, ARM

Ian is Principal Staff Engineer at ARM Ltd of Cambridge, where his role is to nurture strategic technology and opportunities until their business value can be quantified. Apprenticed in electronics 1965-69, he graduated from University of Wales - Swansea, in 1975. He went on to work for  Pye-TMC, Philips, Plessey, GEC and Mitel  before joining ARM in 1998. As an electronic designer he gained wide experience of design and manufacture as the microelectronic/microelectronic system technologies evolved through this most exhilarating period.  His role is very outward facing and he is involved with many European Research Universities, Institutions and Government Bodies, as both advisor and technology scout. He is a frequent presenter on many European stages; an advocate of improved University/Industry relationships; Visiting Professor at the Universities of Liverpool and Plymouth; and the winner of the 2008 NMI award for his personal Contribution to Industry.

Liam Blackwell, ICT Theme Leader, EPSRC

Liam Blackwell leads the Information and Communications Technology team at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, EPSRC. Since October 2008 Liam has been responsible for the development and implementation of strategy for capability in ICT research and training at EPSRC.

Prior to joining the EPSRC in 2000, Liam Blackwell completed his PhD in material science at the University of Leeds and spent two years working at the technology centre of a Devon based clay mining company. At the EPSRC he has worked in the Physics Programme team, Engineering Programme team and on delivery of the EPSRC's strategy for nanotechnology. Outside of work Liam is a keen hiker and skier.

Jan Reid, Manager, Enabling Technologies, Scottish Enterprise

Jan Reid has worked in economic development working with technology companies for over 20 years at Scottish, UK and global level. A graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University, Jan joined the Training Agency in Essex before returning home to Scotland and joined the new Scottish Enterprise in 1991.  She has developed and driven many new areas for Scottish Enterprise and most recently prior to her current position, Jan was Head of Aerospace and Defence, developing the Scottish Aerospace Strategy and working with the DTI on the UK Aerospace Strategy.  This role involved various Board memberships at UK level and international travel leading up to April 2008 when she started her current position with Enabling Technologies.  As Head of Enabling Technologies for Scottish Enterprise, her role includes the development and implementation of the Enabling Technologies Strategy for Scotland and the implementation of the new strategy for Information and Communication Technologies.

Mark Glover, Director Business Planning, Technology Strategy Board

Mark Glover is the Director of Business Planning at the Technology Strategy Board, a business led Non Departmental Public Body tasked with accelerating UK economic growth through support and stimulation of Business innovation. Prior to joining the Technology Strategy Board in January 2009, Mark spent 23 years in the Semiconductor Business where he held senior roles in Development, Project & Programme Management, Strategic Marketing, Product Marketing and Business Management. Latterly Mark was the executive team member responsible for the main Business Unit in Oxford Semiconductor, a Venture Capital backed private company. Immediately prior to that was Vice President and General Manager of a Business Unit in Philips Semiconductors (now NXP).

Don Nicolson, Managing Director, Semi Scenic UK Ltd

Don formed Semi Scenic with 3 colleagues in 2003 & has steered the company through significant growth in the Semiconductor Equipment Supply sector in his position as Managing Director. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a BEng (Hons) degree in Production Engineering & Management, and having been born on the Isle of Lewis, is a native Gaelic speaker. Started work in the Semiconductor Industry with NEC Semiconductors as a manufacturing engineer before joining Lam Research. During 9 years with Lam, Don travelled extensively including a year working in Sicily prior to returning to the UK office as Northern Europe Customer Support Manager. He brings extensive knowledge from the supply side of the industry through several years of experience with a global organisation before developing a unique business model enabling Semi Scenic to thrive in an extremely competitive market.

Geoff Barrett, MDAB Chair, Technical Director, Broadcom Broadband Communications Group

Geoff is responsible for leading a number of design process improvement projects within Broadcom and directing the development of Broadcom’s Firepath DSP processor. He graduated in 1984 from Oxford University and spent 5 years as a researcher in Oxford’s Programming Research Group. He joined ST Microelectronics in 1989 before joining start-up Element-14 in 1999. Element-14 was acquired by Broadcom in 2000.  

Geoff is the author of 9 patents and 28 published papers. He has also made key contributions to programming language design (occam-3 and UBIK), microprocessor design and verification methodologies.