Robin Saxby

Saxby was born in 1947 in Derbyshire and was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School, a boys' grammar school. He attended the University of Liverpool, where he gained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics in 1968.

Saxby had an electronics kit at the age of eight and a television repair business at the age of 14. Reflecting on this in 2006, he considered himself "destined for the electronics industry". He worked at Rank Bush Murphy, Pye, Motorola and Henderson Security. Immediately prior to his appointment at ARM, he worked at European Silicon Structures.

In 1991 he joined Cambridge-based ARM as their first chief executive officer (CEO) and built it to "a global giant" with offices round the world. He was chief executive from 1991 to 2001, and subsequently chairman from 2001 to 2006. When he was appointed CEO in 1991, he took 12 engineers from Acorn Computers into the newly formed joint venture between Acorn and Apple Inc, with a $1.5 million investment from Apple. Saxby introduced the licensing model for selling microprocessors, which led to a 95% market share in the mobile phone sector. Arm is now into the world's most successful processor company, with over 50 billion units shipped to date. During his 10 years as CEO, ARM became the most valuable company in the Cambridge cluster, with a market capitalisation of over $10bn. ARM under his leadership became a global company with offices in many countries and licences taken by all significant semiconductor companies in the world.

Since his retirement from ARM, he has become a promoter of young entrepreneurs and is involved in a number of start-up companies which he supports with advice and finance.

Saxby married Patricia Bell in 1970. They have a son and a daughter.