WALDEN C. RHINES is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mentor Graphics, a leader in worldwide electronic design automation with revenue of about $1.2 billion in 2015. During his tenure at Mentor Graphics, revenue has nearly quadrupled and Mentor has grown the industry’s number one market share solutions in four of the ten largest product segments of the EDA industry.

Prior to joining Mentor Graphics, Rhines was Executive Vice President of Texas Instruments’ Semiconductor Group, sharing responsibility for TI’s Components Sector, and having direct responsibility for the entire semiconductor business with more than $5 billion of revenue and over 30,000 people.

During his 21 years at TI, Rhines managed TI’s thrust into digital signal processing and supervised that business from inception with the TMS 320 family of DSP’s through growth to become the cornerstone of TI’s semiconductor technology. He also supervised the development of the first TI speech synthesis devices (used in “Speak & Spell”) and is co-inventor of the GaN blue-violet light emitting diode (now important for DVD players and low energy lighting). He was President of TI’s Data Systems Group and held numerous other semiconductor executive management positions.

Rhines has served five terms as Chairman of the Electronic Design Automation Consortium and is currently serving as a director. He is also a board member of the Semiconductor Research Corporation and First Growth Children & Family Charities. He has previously served as chairman of the Semiconductor Technical Advisory Committee of the Department of Commerce and as a board member of the Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (CBEMA), SEMI-Sematech/SISA, Electronic Design Automation Consortium (EDAC), University of Michigan National Advisory Council, Lewis and Clark College and SEMATECH.

Dr. Rhines holds a Bachelor of Science degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of Michigan, a Master of Science and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, a master of business administration from Southern Methodist University and an Honorary Doctor of Technology degree from Nottingham Trent University.