ARM Holdings, the hugely successful Cambridge-based microprocessor designer, has announced that CEO Warren East is to retire in July this year, and will be replaced by ARM president Simon Segars.
East joined ARM in 1994 to establish the company's consulting business. He later became vice president of business operations. Within three years he was appointed to the board as chief operating officer. East became ARM CEO in October 2001, replacing its first CEO, Robin Saxby, who had led the company since it gained independence from Acorn Computers, and who set the intellectual property business strategy that has proved to be so successful.
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Under East, the company increased annual revenues from £146m in 2001 to £577m in 2012. Operating profit has likewise increased from £46m to £263m. In that time, the number of ARM-based chips shipped has increased from 420 million to 8.7 billion. Licensees have increased in number from 77 to 322, with 126 currently shipping products. Some 41 billion ARM-based microprocessors have been shipped since the company was founded.
"In 2001 ARM had one processor product line found mainly in mobile phones. Now ARM provides the broadest portfolio of technologies in the industry, used by more than 300 semiconductor customers in nearly nine billion chips last year. During Warren's tenure the company has received royalties for over 40 billion ARM-based chips," said John Buchanan, chairman of ARM Holdings.
Segars joined the board of ARM in January 2005. He has been with ARM since 1991 and has held several executive roles, including executive vice president (EVP) of engineering, when he worked on many of the early ARM microprocessors, as well as EVP of worldwide sales and of business development. He has also held senior positions for ARM in both the UK and the USA.
