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Synopsys: Rich Goldman, VP Corporate Marketing and Strategic Alliances, CEO Synopsys Armenia

From its modest single-product beginnings 22 years ago, Silicon Valley–based Synopsys is now at the top of its game—a world-class leader in providing developers with the tools and solutions for designing digital and integrated circuits.

Rich Goldman has been part of the Synopsys tribe for 18 years, with roles at other high-tech companies before that, placing him squarely as both participant and observer of the radically changing landscape of technology and culture.

In his 20s, Goldman set up application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) operations in India for semiconductor manufacturer Texas Instruments, long before global became an overused word.

“They asked me to start up this operation by hiring 25 engineers. The first week I got there, we had one thousand resumes and I interviewed 100 people in five days,” he recalls.

As a result of his search for self-starters with a good education and the ability to solve engineering problems, these 25 people became the core of TI's India operations.

“In the mid to late 80s, the culture in India was very different. Our team used ox carts to bring in their equipment!”

In 1992, Rich found himself in the midst of the Soviet Union's dissolution, as the country spun apart and the Russian Federation became an independent country.

“It was then that I became a culture chameleon by learning to take on a culture as much as possible, respecting it and immersing ...