TI exec Delfassy retires
By Ann Steffora Mutschler -- EDN, January 19, 2007
Dallas-based telecom chip giant Texas Instruments (TI) announced today that 28-year company exec Gilles Delfassy, senior VP and head of TI’s wireless terminals unit, plans to retire. Effective immediately, TI has promoted Greg Delagi to senior VP and leader of the cell phone semiconductor development operation.
Delfassy has been at the helm of the company’s wireless terminals unit since its inception in 1995, and is credited with growing it into a multibillion dollar operation.
According to TI, also under his guidance, the company became a leading supplier of semiconductors for wireless handsets.
Delfassy is viewed as a global champion of mobile communications: He and his team introduced a new single-chip cell phone technology called “LoCosto,” which is bringing affordable cell phones for the first time to people in emerging economies such as China, India and Africa, TI noted.
Among the other accomplishments under his leadership was the development of TI’s OMAP platform, meant to allow multimedia on cell phones and broadening wireless capability beyond voice.
“Gilles built an outstanding operation, one that not only transformed TI, but changed the way the world communicates. He leaves a legacy of innovation and growth,” said Rich Templeton, TI’s president and CEO, in a statement.
Delagi is a 22-year TI veteran who, for the past 10 years, has led development and commercialization of digital signal processors (DSPs), one of the company’s core semiconductor technologies and a critical component in the company’s wireless product line.
He presided over the successful launch of the industry’s first 1GHz DSP and the DaVinci family of hardware and software for video applications.
More recently, Delagi added responsibility for several of the company’s systems businesses, creating SoC solutions that encompass analog and digital components.
Since the late 1990s, he has led TI’s effort in semiconductors for wireless basestations, working with customers and operators as his team built the industry’s top position in this market, TI said.
The two will work together over the next six months to ensure an orderly transition for customers, suppliers and employees, the company noted.
News of Delfassy’s retirement provoked reaction from the investment banking community.
Lehman Brothers’ semiconductor analyst Timothy Luke believes his departure "may weigh on sentiment this morning especially given subdued near term wireless trends. Ahead of what we expect to be subdued 4Q results and weak Q1 guidance on Monday, our estimates and long term “overweight” rating are unchanged.”
