Sir Robin Saxby FREng FRS

Sir Robin Saxby has gained worldwide prominence as an electronics entrepreneur and British success story. A longtime advocate for the startup sector, Robin built semiconductor firm ARM from a small Cambridge headquartered startup to a global electronics giant.   

Robin developed his interest in technology from an early age, establishing his own TV and radio repair business age 13. In 1968, he earned his degree in electronic engineering from the University of Liverpool.  

He began his industry career in electronic design roles at Rank Bush Murphy and Pye TMC, later spending eleven years starting as a sales engineer and continuing in various management roles at Motorola Semiconductors. To gain experience, Robin spent a period outside of the semiconductor industry as CEO of Henderson Security Systems, where he improved his understanding of all aspects of running a business. In 1986 he joined an industry funded European semiconductor startup ES2 making full custom silicon with an EBeam machine and providing design services using silicon compilation. This gave him more exposure to Silicon Valley and Japan.  

In 1990, a headhunting phone call led him to become ARM’s founding CEO and chairman and with a twelve person team spun out of Acorn and £1.75 million cash from Apple and VLSI Technology he set out to turn ARM into the digital global standard microprocessor. Robin and his team pioneered a partnership-licensing model to embed microprocessor cores into all digital silicon circuits. In just ten years under Robin’s leadership, ARM grew to a market capitalisation of over $10bn. Robin’s successors have continued to grow the company globally with  the company’s valuation being over $200 billion today. 

Robin retired from ARM in 2007 but has continued to pursue policy advisory and advocacy roles, where he now acts as an ambassador for young and aspiring engineers and scientists. He is an advisor to Amadeus Venture Capital and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool. 

In 2002, he was knighted for services to the IT industry and he has received many national and international honours. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society.