Wally Rhines, Ph.D
Dr. Walden (Wally) Rhines is a highly accomplished technology pioneer and business value builder in the semiconductor, EDA software, and electronics industries. He is known for leading business turnarounds, growth and M&A initiatives at Mentor Graphics Inc. and the worldwide Semiconductor Group at Texas Instruments Inc., and he is a recognized industry expert. Wally has held board director roles at four publicly traded semiconductor companies, and board advisory and leadership roles with the US government, non-profits. and universities. He is an IEEE Life Fellow and recipient of multiple awards. Over the course of his career, Wally led and contributed to commercialized products at Mentor Graphics and Texas Instruments, including the development of the first digital signal processors, speech synthesis chips used in the Speak & Spell learning aid and the Calibre family of physical verification software. An inventor of the Gallium Nitride blue light emitting diode, Wally’s and his co-inventor’s work was cited by Shuji Nakamura as fundamental to his Nobel Prize award.
Currently, as CEO Emeritus at Mentor, a Siemens Business, Wally advises governments, hedge funds, communications, computer, consumer electronics, and automotive companies, among others, on industry, customer, and technology dynamics. He is also a keynote speaker and panelist at global business, economic, industry, and engineering events, providing unique industry and customer insights for business strategic planning and development.