Grant Pierce named Chairman of the ESD Alliance Board of Directors

Grant A. Pierce, chief executive officer (CEO) of Sonics, Inc., supplier of on-chip network (NoC) and power management technologies and services, was elected by the Board of Directors of the Electronic System Design Alliance (ESD Alliance) to serve as its chairman.

“It is an honor and a privilege to be named chairman of the ESD Alliance by my peers on the board,” remarks Pierce. “This is a great opportunity to help guide the organization through the transformation it began in 2016 to broaden its focus to system issues encompassing hardware, software, and design. My experience at Sonics straddling both the system-on-chip IP hardware and design software businesses should serve as a strong unifying asset in this leadership role on the board.”

In a related move, Bob Smith, executive director of the ESD Alliance, joined the board of directors as part of a recent amendment that updated the ESD Alliance bylaws to reflect the broader mission of the organization.

Other board members are:

  • Aart de Geus, chairman and CEO of Synopsys, Inc.
  • Dean Drako, president and CEO at IC Manage
  • Amit Gupta, president and CEO from Solido Design Automation
  • John Kibarian, president, CEO and co-founder of PDF Solutions, Inc.
  • Lucio Lanza, managing director at Lanza techVentures
  • Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO from Mentor Graphics Corporation
  • Simon Segars, ARM’s CEO
  • Lip-Bu Tan, president and CEO of Cadence Design Systems

“I’m pleased with the board’s selection of Grant Pierce to chair our organization,” says Smith. “He is an active board member, whose varied industry experience and well-honed skillset will help us forge ahead. He and I had the opportunity to work together on several projects and I welcome the chance to work more closely with him.”

Grant A. Pierce, a co-founder of Sonics, Inc., was elected to the ESD Alliance (formerly the EDA Consortium) Board of Directors in 2014 and will serve as chairman until the next board elections in 2018. He has served as Sonics’ CEO and president and as chairman of the board of directors since 1997. Over the earlier part of his more than 30-year career in high technology, Pierce served in senior management roles in a wide range of companies that built digital media and communications devices, object-oriented software development environments, fabless semiconductors, mini-computer systems, and peripherals. Pierce is a former certified public accountant and began his career with Arthur Andersen and Co.

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