Chi-Foon Chan


Dr. Chi-Foon Chan is President and Chief Operation Officer (COO) for Synopsys, Inc, a leading global provider of software tools, methodologies, intellectual property reuse and consulting services that IC chip manufacturers use in the design of system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology.

Dr. Chan joined Synopsys in 1990 as Senior VP of Application Services, the first “outside” executive to be brought on board. Since then, Dr. Chan has served in a variety of capacities at Synopsys, including Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Organization, where he advanced Synopsys’ global expansion into India, Ireland, and China. In January 1997 he was promoted to his current position of Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, adding the title of President in May 1998, at which time he joined the Synopsys Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Synopsys, Dr. Chan was with NEC Corporation where he served as General Manager of the microprocessor group. From 1977 to 1987, Dr. Chan worked at Intel Corporation as an engineering manager.

In 1998, Dr. Chan was a founding member of the International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED). In 1992, he served on the Board of Directors for the Chinese Historical Museum of San Jose. Currently, Dr. Chan serves on the Board of Directors for both NEC Electronics and the Hong Kong Silicon Valley advisory group, HKSV.COM. He is a member of two engineering honor societies: ETA Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi. He also serves as a Visiting Professor of Peking University.

Dr. Chan has published papers at the International Conference on Acoustic Speech and Signal Processing, West Con, Speech Tech, and Proceedings of IEEE. He also edited “VLSI and DSP” (IEEE Press), one of the first books published on very large system integration and digital signal processing.

Dr. Chan, born in Taiwan and raised in Hong Kong, moved to the United States in 1968 to begin his Bachelor in Electrical Engineering at Rutgers University. He also holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Chan, his wife and two children currently live in the San Francisco Bay area in California. In his rare leisure time, he enjoys reading and attending the symphony.