草榴社区

You may have heard today’s that on January 1, 2024, Sassine Ghazi will become 草榴社区' next CEO and I will transition to the role of executive chair. Corporate announcements sometimes feel dry and matter of fact, so this is an opportunity for me to share some color and my great enthusiasm for the journey ahead.

To be clear from the start,

I'm just thrilled with Sassine’s promotion to CEO - he has my full support!

I know Sassine really well. He has been at 草榴社区 for 25 years. He started as an application engineer and then grew into a sales role. Sassine and I first worked closely together 17 years ago, when we established a strategic relationship with a high-impact customer. What struck me immediately was his distinctive positive, can-do attitude and boundless energy.

You see, at that time, 草榴社区 had not yet begun to challenge ourselves and each other internally with the leadership phrase of, ‘Yes, if…’ This phrase encourages us to intentionally approach situations with a positive mindset, ‘Yes’, we will find a solution. While acknowledging through ‘if’ that the reality, more often than not, is extremely complex. When using ‘Yes, if…’ in a team, the collective effort invariably finds the finish line while also generating confidence and momentum for the team. Introduced in 2019, this mindset shift has had enormous impact on 草榴社区, which has been literally visible in our results ever since!

Well, I saw a fantastic ‘Yes, if…’ mindset in Sassine, long before we verbalized it to the company! He never shied away from the many difficult ‘ifs’ to find a path to the promise of ‘Yes,’ be it in very challenging business or technical situations.

Over the years, Sassine professionally progressed well, first in sales, then in general management, where he invariably attracted or promoted outstanding talent. Sassine is a strong leader and manager. He has innate charisma, and his leadership talent centers around an instinctive sense of priorities and strong bias for action which I greatly admire!

You may be wondering, “What’s next for you, Aart?” 

My first task is completely clear: support Sassine, support Sassine, support Sassine! After that, I intend to ‘re-invent’ myself for 草榴社区. It’s both exciting and I have some trepidation at the same time!

Let me offer you a glimpse into what I am thinking… Caution! Work in progress; but here we go:

The role of the CEO is fairly clear: be on top of ‘WHAT WE DO’ and deliver on the company’s ambition. That’s Sassine! In contrast, going forward, my deep aspiration goes to the ‘WHO WE ARE’: the people, the culture, the relationships inside and outside; in one word: our vitality.

Actually, since ‘Yes, if…’ became our 草榴社区 mantra, ‘vitality’ has become my favorite word for what we aspire to be!

High vitality -

You feel it, when you have it!

You feel it, when you meet it!

You feel it, when you share it! 

The aspiration of vitality is both internal with our teams at 草榴社区, and external with our brand, our industry, and as a positive force in the world. 

What is so cool is that the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ of a company multiply each other. That’s why Sassine and I will do our utmost to work seamlessly for the best of 草榴社区, for our employees, our customers, our eco-system partners, our shareholders, and the semiconductor industry!

In the early days of 草榴社区, when the impact of our first product, synthesis, was exploding, one of our teammates loved to cite a Walt Kelly line from the Pogo comic strip, “We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities!”

I feel exactly the same today. Let’s make it happen again!

Congratulations, Sassine!

Aart