Alisa Yaffa
Co-founder, Chairman of the Board, and Vice President, Intellectual Property

Alisa Yaffa is a co-founder of Synplicity, which she started with Ken McElvain in 1994. Since 1997 she has served as the company’s chairman of the board. Ms. Yaffa is also responsible for advising on issues relating to internal intellectual property matters. From 1994 to 1996 Ms. Yaffa was the CEO of Synplicity, and at various times in its early days was responsible for sales, marketing and finance, holding the positions of vice president, sales, and vice president, marketing, and chief financial officer.

Ms. Yaffa holds the distinction of being the first woman co-founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of an Electronic Design Automation company started in the United States.

Prior to starting Synplicity, Ms. Yaffa worked in various technical and marketing roles at Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Mentor Graphics Corporation, EDA Systems, Inc., Amdahl Corporation and VLSI Technology, Inc.

Ms. Yaffa holds a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley.