Sir Robin Keith Saxby FREngHonFRS (born 4 February 1947) is an English engineer who was chief executive and then chairman of
ARM Holdings
Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England.
Its primary business is in the design of ARM processors (CPUs). It also designs other chips, provides software development tools under the DS-5, RealView an ...
, which he built to become a dominant supplier of embedded systems.
Early life and education
Saxby was born in 1947 in Derbyshire and was educated at
Chesterfield Grammar School
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*Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England
** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituenc ...
Saxby had an electronics kit at the age of eight and a television repair business at the age of 14. Reflecting on this in 2006, he considered himself "destined for the electronics industry". He worked at Rank Bush Murphy, Pye, Motorola and Henderson Security. Immediately prior to his appointment at ARM, he worked at
European Silicon Structures
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* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
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.
In 1991 he joined Cambridge-based ARM as their first chief executive officer (CEO) and built it to "a global giant" with offices round the world. He was chief executive from 1991 to 2001, and subsequently chairman from 2001 to 2006. It was at ARM that he made his real impact on the electronic industry. When he was appointed CEO in 1991, he took 12 engineers from Acorn Computers into the newly formed joint venture between Acorn and Apple Inc. With a limited budget of a $1.5 million investment from Apple, he made those 12 engineers into one of the most formidable management teams in the industry. In a memorable early meeting, he persuaded one of the engineers to volunteer to become the vice president (VP) of marketing, another the VP of sales, and so on. Saxby also introduced the licensing model for selling microprocessors, which led to a 95% market share in the mobile phone sector. With a similar success in other sectors, he has made ARM into the world's most successful processor company, with over 50 billion units shipped to date. During his 10 years as CEO, he made ARM the most valuable company in the Cambridge cluster, with a market capitalisation of over $10bn. ARM under his leadership became a global company with offices in many countries and licences taken by all significant semiconductor companies in the world. This is a unique achievement for a British company, especially in electronics.
Since his retirement from ARM, he has become a tireless promoter of young entrepreneurs and is involved in a number of
start-up companies
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
which he supports with advice, finance and infinite patience. He has dedicated time to mentoring young entrepreneurs, helping them through difficult times and never losing faith in them.
Honours and awards
Saxby is a chartered engineer, an honorary fellow of the IET and a fellow of the
Royal Academy of Engineering
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering.
The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...
. He has honorary doctorates from the University of Liverpool (where he is a visiting professor),
Loughborough University
Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...
2002 New Year Honours
New Years' Honours are announced on or around the date of the New Year in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in supplements to the London Ga ...
List. He became president of the IET on 1 October 2006IET press release and stepped down on 30 September 2007. In 2013 he presented the IET prestigious Pinkerton Lecture at the Infosys auditorium in Bangalore, India. He was president of the Old Cestrefeldians Society 2012/13. Saxby was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
Saxby received the 2019 IEEE Founders Medal “For achievements in developing a globally successful electronics enterprise with an innovative approach to licensing of Intellectual Property.”
Personal life
Saxby married Patricia Bell in 1970. They have a son and a daughter.