Tag Archives: Nick Martin

Changing of the EDA Guards

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Turnover among the heads at the major suppliers of electronics design-related software is rare indeed. Since 2010, the top spot of a leading PCB software company has changed hands only once.

The dean of PCB EDA, Makoto Kaneko, founded Zuken in 1976. Wally Rhines has run Mentor Graphics since 1993. His counterpart at Cadence, Lip Bu Tan, has been in place since 2009.

Altium has had three chiefs in its existence, the most recent being Aram Mirkazemi, who was installed in 2014. But for a shareholder revolt in 2012, however, Nick Martin, who founded the company in 1985, might still be in charge.

That’s why it’s was so unusual this week when, on the same day this week, Ansys and NI each named the successors to their respective thrones.

Ansys appointed Dr. Ajei S. Gopal CEO-in-waiting, succeeding longtime head Jim Cashman. Gopal’s been a familiar face around the company, however, having joined its board in 2011.

Cashman joined Ansys as president in 1999, and was named CEO a year later. On his watch, Ansys’s revenues have grown from $50 million to almost $1 billion.

In NI’s case, it’s in some ways an even bigger transition. As a researcher at the University of Texas, James Truchard cofounded National Instruments in his garage in 1976. Come Jan 1., when Alex Davern takes the reins, it will be as chief executive and president of a $1.2 billion firm employing more than 2,000 workers worldwide.  If Davern has an advantage, he’s held a variety of positions in finance at NI dating to 1997, and he’s been Cashman’s right-hand as COO and CFO since 2010.

What’s clear is that the software industry, while dependent on innovation, also prides itself on stability. Since the market is characterized by a relatively small number of major players, the ability to maintain relationships with key customers may have something to do with that. That the leadership at most of the aforementioned companies has been relatively controversy-free doesn’t hurt, either.

From the looks of it, the heir apparents promise more of the same. Given the respective performance of the CEOs they are following, that’s not a bad thing.

 

 

Predictions for 2013

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It’s been awhile since I used this space to make any predictions about the coming months, but the end of the year is always the logical (if cliched) time to do so.

So here goes:

  • The migration of manufacturing to North America will accelerate, and the mainstream media will begin to report that OEMs are also reestablishing internal production lines.
  • Flextronics will buy at least some of RIM.
  • Robots as substitutes for human labor will be heavily hyped but lightly used.
  • Ousted Altium founder Nick Martin will hook on with a budding cloud-based software company and build a PCB CAD tool.
  • At least two new PCB CAD vendors will emerge.
  • Electronics manufacturing companies will end 2013 with less cash in the bank but brighter prospects for the future.

 

 

 

 

Why Not Nick?

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Nick Martin, the founder and, until last week, CEO of Altium, is fighting back against the board that tossed him out.

But the real question isn’t whether he will regain his spot atop the CAD tool developer. It’s why the board saw fit to relieve him of his duties in the first place.

Some contend privately that at least one board member wants to sell the company but that Martin, who is the company’s largest shareholder, has been reluctant to go along. If so, pushing him out would mean removing, in part, one big barrier. For its part, the board has publicly stated that the decision to leave was Martin’s — something he vehemently contests, and which seems unlikely on its surface — and that the company has not returned the type of shareholder value the board seeks.

So while it’s true the move to Shanghai coincided with an improved bottom line and a higher share price, it’s also true the stock hasn’t topped $1 in years (chart — the top line = $1; the current price is about 80 cents). No one is getting rich owning Altium right now. If the board is getting antsy, it’s understandable. Whether that merits replacing  Altium’s answer to Steve Jobs — a design visionary who, according to many we’ve spoken with, has always put the technology first — is for the historians to determine.