Panel “Boosting Chip Design in Europe"

Antonio Varas is Chief Strategy Officer at Synopsys, where he leads the corporate strategic planning process. Before joining Synopsys, he spent 18 years at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), most recently as Senior Partner and Managing Director. At BCG he was global co-lead of the semiconductor practice and led its work on geopolitics in the technology industry. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BSc in Finance and Economics from Deusto University.

Joe Cole is Corporate Vice President for EMEA at Cadence. He leads the company’s business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He brings a collaborative, customer-first approach to working with the region’s semiconductor and systems companies.

Paul Williamson is Senior Vice President of Corporate Ventures at Arm, where he leads the company’s venture investments. At Arm he has led several of its largest business units, including the IoT, Client, security and wireless groups. These cover products from smartphones to edge AI devices. Before Arm, he worked at Cambridge technology firms CSR and Cambridge Consultants, developing products for consumer, medical and industrial markets.

Geoff Lee is Vice President of EMEA Sales at Siemens EDA, a role he has held since 2024. He joined Mentor Graphics, now part of Siemens, in 1999 and helped launch the Calibre product line. He later held senior account roles across Europe before leading Strategic Accounts worldwide.

Gunnar Thomas is General Counsel at TSMC Europe in Amsterdam and also heads Human Resources for the EMEA region. He plays a key role in setting up ESMC, TSMC’s joint venture building a chip plant in Dresden, including recruiting its workforce. Before TSMC, he worked at Giga-Byte Technology and at a German law firm. He holds a Master of Laws in Legal Informatics from Leibniz Universität Hannover.