Sir Robin Saxby was born in 1947 in Derbyshire and was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School. He attended the University of Liverpool, where he gained a BEng degree in Electronics in 1968. Saxby initially worked at Rank Bush Murphy, Pye, Motorola and Henderson Security. Immediately prior to his appointment at ARM, he worked at European Silicon Structures.
In 1991 he joined Cambridge-based, start-up ARM as their first CEO and built it to "a global giant" with offices round the world. He was Chief Executive from 1991-2001, and subsequently Chairman from 2001-2006. 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. With a limited budget of a $1.5m 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 VP marketing, another the VP 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 50bn 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 licenses 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 which he supports with advice, finance and infinite patience. He has dedicated countless hours to mentoring young entrepreneurs, helping them through difficult times and never losing faith in them.
Subject groups
- Engineering
Engineering, semiconductors
