Leadership Team

Managing Director

Involvement in ground breaking developments in the semiconductor industry has defined Rod’s career to date. Starting at Motorola in the late 70s, then advancing his experience at Texas Instruments and through running Temic’s (now Atmel) UK operation, Rod had already gained both wide experience and an industry reputation, before he established GarField Microelectronics Ltd in 1994.

Now Managing Director of both GarField and Matrics, which the company acquired in 2006, Rod’s enthusiasm for seeking out leading-edge resolution of client issues has not dimmed. He remains committed to providing the industry with high quality silicon solutions, whilst enhancing GF Micro’s reputation as a totally reliable supplier and development partner.

Career highlights:

• Worked on first 16bit microprocessors at Motorola

• Headed up TEMIC UK for five years

• 1994 Founded GarField. He identified a niche in the custom silicon market - one of the first companies offering an independent design and supply business

• 2006 Acquisition of Matrics - added analogue expertise and significant IP

• 2018 Overseeing the change from GarField Matrics into GF Micro and addition of a dedicated product design team

Technical Director

After obtaining a first class MEng degree from Oxford, Mike has spent twenty years working at the leading edge of ASIC and SoC development. His technical leadership of advanced project developments for a range of clients meant that GF Micro were delighted to welcome him to the team in 2014. He is a keen member of the IEEE, and currently holds SC clearance.

Since joining us he has successfully managed the development of a diverse range of ASIC products with applications as varied as driver ICs for piezoelectric printheads and ultrasonic transducers, radiation detection, and satellite navigation.

Projects Director

Gareth has an in-depth understanding of silicon product lifecycle from feasibility study through to the design stages and on to mass production. This knowledge has been gained over his 25 year career through roles as a Digital Designer, Worldwide Technical Support Team Leader and Project Manager across different sectors including military, telecommunications and consumer electronics. Before joining GF Micro, Gareth had previously worked for both small design consultancies and large multi-national organisations, providing him with a wealth of experience of managing small, locally based engineers and also larger, internationally based teams.

After working most recently in the consumer electronics security sector, Gareth joined GF Micro to help strengthen the existing project management capability.

Engineering Manager

After achieving a first class Masters degree in Electronic Engineering Rob pursued a career in education leading the Technology Team at a Bristol Secondary School and gaining National funding to achieve Technology School Status from innovative curriculum design. A nomination for a National Award in the use of ICT and the development of Advanced Level Engineering and Computing Science courses led to close ties with Industry and a resulting career move into silicon design and implementation. Now, with over 20 years of digital implementation experience, Rob has worked primarily at 28nm and below in a range of market spaces including high speed, low latency networking for some of the largest supercomputers in the world, mobile communications and defence. Working with customers across the US, China, and Europe, Rob has developed long-term relationships resulting in many successful tape-outs. Through experience of working from synthesis through to final physical verification and all steps in between Rob has gained experience in driving the full tool suite from all major vendors and working in partnership with them. Although his focus has been physical implementation, his experience of RTL coding, test bench development, bring up and customer facing demonstrations gives an appreciation of the challenges faced throughout the silicon design process.

Business Development Manager

With over thirty years business development experience in leading edge electronics markets and applications, Richard’s broad knowledge and understanding of the Microelectronics industry is a valuable asset to GF Micro.

This skillset is critical when engaging in many challenging applications and brings the value of business knowledge to the development process.

Richard’s experience, nearly always starting at the design in stage, has been gained across a range of companies including Wolfson Micro, Sharp Micro and most recently at ams AG where he was responsible for Foundry Sales in Europe, covering design, fabrication and production of custom semiconductor devices.

Backing this up Richard has extensive experience relating to the design and manufacture of custom and standard semiconductors, working with several well-known brands. This knowledge is key to GFM’s ability to help and guide customers on key choices throughout the device development process.

Office Manager

With many years of office and PA experience across various industry sectors, Elaine has the perfect experience to organise and handle the many tasks required to support GF Micro’s high-quality service delivery.

Responsible for QA, HR, and the management of our offices, Elaine provides a solid foundation linking our engineering and design functions with our wide range of customers.