NMI last night honoured Simon Knowles and Dr George Karam, naming them both as Technology Entrepreneur of the year at its annual award ceremony in London. The decision to award an NMI award jointly is unprecedented.

Simon Knowles co-founded Bristol-based Icera Semiconductor in 2002, which grew to over 300 people across seven countries and built a portfolio of more than 550 patents. Nvidia acquired the fabless software modem chip company earlier this year for $367 million. Simon also co-founded the ADSL chip firm Element 14, which was sold to Broadcom in 2000 for $640 million, and established the Element 14 design centre in Bristol.

Dr Georges Karam founded Sequans Communications in 2003 to address the WiMAX market, expanding in 2009 to exploit the LTE opportunity. Sequans has rapidly grown to become a world-leading 4G communications chip designer and Europe’s third largest fabless semiconductor company.

The joint winners were selected from independent nominations by Dr Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies and ARM’s founder, Sir Robin Saxby.

Dr Derek Boyd, CEO of NMI said: “This is the first time a joint winner of any category has been announced. This unprecedented decision celebrates the outstanding entrepreneurial spirit and success that both individuals have displayed in a fiercely competitive global technology marketplace.”

Derek Boyd, NMI CEO, presenting at the ninth annual NMI awards ceremony     Over 300 people attended the NMI awards at the Wyndham Grand Chelsea Harbour, London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technology Entrepreneur is one of two new categories introduced in 2011 and joins the Semi360 award, which reflects an imperative for chip companies to provide complete solutions. The Semi360 category was won by Bristol-based start-up Gnodal.

The full list of NMI Award winners announced on the night were:

Technology Entrepreneur	Dr Georges Karam and Simon Knowles
Young Engineer of the Year	Alan Coombs (Neul)
Environmental Management	International Rectifier
Semi360	Gnodal
Manufacturing Site of the Year	Diodes Incorporated
Innovation	Neul
R&D Achievement	Plessey Semiconductors
Skills, Training & Development	Diodes Incorporated
Low Power Green Design	Aspex Semiconductor
Supplier of the Year	Multilab
Product Excellence	Freescale
UKESF Scholar of the Year	Adam Malpass (Southampton University)

Photographs of all winners can be viewed here

The awards promote practices conducive to the long-term health of the UK’s Electronic Systems community. Now in its ninth year, the NMI awards ceremony was held at the Wyndham Grand Chelsea Harbour, London and attracted over 300 guests from throughout the UK and around the world. The celebrity speaker was Private Eye and Radio 4’s Dr Phil Hammond.

Dr Phil Hammond speaking at the ninth annual NMI award ceremony