Aart de Geus

Aart J. de Geus (born 1954) is the founder, chairman and CEO of Synopsys Inc. He is a fellow of IEEE and a Phil Kaufman Award winner. De Geus graduated with a master's degree in electrical engineering (1978) from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of technology), EPFL, Switzerland followed by a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University, Texas, United States, in 1985.

Electronic Business magazine has chosen De Geus as one of "The 10 Most Influential Executives". He was honored for pioneering the commercial logic synthesis market by being named the third recipient ever to receive the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Industrial Pioneer Award. In 2002, shortly after transacting the largest merger in electronic design automation (EDA) history, De Geus was named CEO of the Year by Electronic Business magazine; and in 2004, Entrepreneur of the Year in IT for Northern California by Ernst & Young. Aart is the recipient of the 2008 Phil Kaufman Award (considered as the Nobel prize in EDA) for distinguished contributions to EDA.

De Geus received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in 2004.