Robin Keith Saxby

Guided ARM Holdings to worldwide dominance in embedded applications as its first CEO, Saxby built the Cambridge-based company into "a global giant" with offices round the world.

Born in Derbyshire, in central England, Saxby was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School, a boys' grammar school. He had an electronics kit at the age of eight and a TV repair business at the age of 14. Reflecting on this in 2006, he considered himself "destined for the electronics industry." He attended the University of Liverpool, where he gained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics in 1968.

After graduation he joined Rank Bush Murphy, where his first job was designing color television receivers. Rank Bush Murphy was an advanced group located in Chiswick in London. While there, he, as the system's designer, was involved with the design of the UK's first solid-state color television receiver. The group was also involved with integrated circuit design. He moved up the ranks to Senior Engineer, and in 1974, at the age of 27, he gave a talk at the Royal Television Society about his work and the economics of the component count on the cost versus doing it with discrete transistors, and about the money the factory had saved.

Motorola Semiconductors attended the lecture. They were installing a site in the UK and were looking for people to hire. They offered Saxby a job and a company car, but he hesitated, unsure of joining the commercial world of the American semiconductor company. He told them "No," and, staying in engineering, he went to work for Pye TMC, doing PCM regenerator design. He later accepted the position of Sales Engineer at Motorola Semiconductors.

In 1991 he joined Cambridge-based ARM Holdings, PLC, as their first CEO. He served as Chief Executive from 1991–2001, then Chairman from 2001–2006. ARM Holdings, PLC, is a world-leading semiconductor intellectual property supplier, at the heart of the development of digital electronic products.

Saxby holds an honorary Doctorate D.Eng from the University of Liverpool, where he has served as a Visiting Professor from 1999, as well as honorary doctorates from Nottingham Trent University and Anglia Ruskin University. In July 2001, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate D.Tech from Loughborough University and the University of Essex. He is a Chartered Engineer and received the Faraday Medal of the IEE (now the IET). He was knighted in the 2002 New Year's Honours List.

He has served as President of The IET from October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007, and has remained an active Fellow and Council Member. Saxby was named the 2012 recipient of the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award and has served as President of the Old Cestrefeldians Society 2012/13. He has served as Chairman of the Open Microprocessor Initiative Advisory Group and as a Member of the Advisory Board at Sontia Logic Limited. He has also served as a Member of the Strategic Advisory Board at UMIP Premier Fund, a Member of the Advisory Board at XMOS, Ltd., from March 2011, a Senior Independent Non-Executive Director of Glotel, PLC until July 25, 2007, and a Non-Executive Director of Sirius Communications.