Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli became the UltraSoC Chairman in 2017, having joined the advisory board earlier the same year. He has worked closely with the management team and his inputs, experience and guidance have been invaluable to the company. UltraSoC has been fortunate to have such an industry luminary as its Chairman.
In a telephone interview, following the sale of UltraSoC to Siemens, Alberto shared with me some of his reflections on UltraSoC: the company and its people.
“From my early involvement, it was clear that safety and security was a big opportunity for applying UltraSoC’s 
fundamental technology. Taking it away from being just a debug tool, developing the technology and then truly commercializing the product to harness its true potential for systems developers. With this strategy and the shift in the fundamental proposition, Rupert Baines and the team have injected value into the company. I am proud to have been part of this success.
“The management team put in place a phenomenal strategy and the entire company executed on the plan with precision.
“The company has made so many good decisions, both technical and commercial: its strategic partnerships and technology roadmap; its independent approach, which required significant commitment to developing solutions for the open-source RISC-V architecture, whilst remaining platform agnostic. The model has meant UltraSoC’s technology could fit within any methodology for circuit or system design, and also support any processor platform. The strategic focus on safety and security has been a decision we’ve agreed for some time now, and the team under Rupert, Gadge Panesar and Aileen Ryan have worked hard to realize that potential.”
Alberto commented further about the contributions of the senior management team:
“As Chairman, interacting with a CEO like Rupert made my job easier, to ensure we had the correct strategic and organizational direction. He was both responsive and proactive. We had so much contact and much interaction that made Rupert a joy to work with.
“I also forged a strong connection with Gadge: I have utmost respect for his ability as a technologist. He has an extraordinarily deep knowledge of IC technology, but also the vision to see what the technology could become in terms of the larger system and its flexibility. He made such a positive difference to the direction of the company.
“I was delighted when Aileen joined the team. She brings a blend of organizational skills and strategic thinking which are invaluable. She has contributed significantly to the success of the company in driving the development of cybersecurity and automotive offerings in the last few years. Looking ahead, Aileen’s skills and experience will ease the integration with Siemens.
“It was this strong management, along with the rest of the fantastic team, that turned UltraSoC into a commercial success that made the company an obvious choice for acquisition by a large systems company like Siemens. And a perfect technology fit for the EDA side of the Siemens business – integrated from its 2017 acquisition of Mentor Graphics.
“The success of UltraSoC would not have been possible without this talented, energetic team, and I am delighted to have been part of it. Given my own history in system and electronics design, it is a proud moment to see UltraSoC joining Siemens, one of the largest systems companies in the world. UltraSoC’s technology needs to be taken to a wider audience and this move will bring it closer to the users – where it deserves to be.
I wish all the UltraSoC team the best of luck in their new home!”