Cadence Spotlight Stories 2018 by Cadence

LAUNCH YOUR CAREER Growing and Learning from the Best in the Industry An Interview with Gaurav Narula Last summer, Gaurav Narula, a senior applications engineer with the Silicon Package and Board (SBP) business group, made one of the biggest decisions of his life and took his first full-time job with Cadence. Before joining Cadence, Gaurav had several internships at other companies but his internship at Cadence was the most challenging and also the most rewarding. With our High-Performance Culture framework, employees can work with their managers and HR to identify specific developmental needs and opportunities. Our development guides outline learning opportunities at every level: intern, individual contributor, manager, director, and VP+. “I feel enlightened here at Cadence,” said Gaurav. “The employees here are really experienced in terms of capabilities and they are happy to share what they know with each other.” Gaurav chose to grow his career with Cadence because he saw opportunities for professional and personal development that he did not find elsewhere. Working alongside industry professionals, Gaurav has embraced their dedicated work ethic and their creative approach to solving customers’ problems. As a senior application engineer, Gaurav is an expert in signal and power integrity. He is responsible for assessing customers’ designs for any faults. He then gives them proper consultation to solve electrical issues in the design cycle. He also provides optimal feedback to Cadence® R&D and product engineering teams regarding customer requirements and future needs. Gaurav’s growth has gone beyond the technical skills he’s learned. Gaurav began his personal development journey when he attended a workshop called “Rainmaker.” The event focused on the importance of interpersonal skills and how they contribute to success out in the field. “Between workshops and guidance from my colleagues, I’ve become more confident since joining Cadence. I’m more comfortable speaking with customers and sharing my ideas with coworkers,” said Gaurav. “I’m not afraid to speak up and make my voice heard because I know that my time here has made me more capable of offering new solutions to our customers’ problems.” He feels that his rapport with his manager has been critical to his growth. Gaurav’s manager gives him complete trust and freedom to be a part of crucial projects involving major customers. Thanks to our open-door culture, employees at all levels are welcomed to share ideas and collaborate with their colleagues. There are a variety of avenues for employees to connect with each other and even their managers and the executive team.

I’m not afraid to speak up and make my voice heard because I know that my time here has made me more capable of offering new solutions to our customers’ problems. Gaurav Narula

There is a clear culture of trust, teamwork, and camaraderie between leaders and employees. It’s unique and special that at Cadence, I was able to connect with the CEO over our love for Steph Curry and Lionel Messi. Gaurav Narula

We offer roundtable meetings, fireside chats, and Cadence Quarterly Meetings, as well as other events to promote a collaborative and open culture. These events are enjoyed by over 3,000 employees around the globe annually. “People weren’t as interested in each other at my previous internships. We never had things like roundtable meetings with executive team members. And then I came here to Cadence and the leaders are accessible and welcoming,” said Gaurav. “There is a clear culture of trust, teamwork, and camaraderie between leaders and employees. It’s unique and special that at Cadence, I was able to connect with the CEO over our love for Steph Curry and Lionel Messi.”

© 2017 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Cadence, the Cadence logo, and the other Cadence marks found at www.cadence.com/ go/trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

A GREAT PLACE TO WORK FOR ALL Inspiring Through Leadership An Interview with Alessandra Costa The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics industry is a male-dominated field, but despite this trend, Cadence believes in creating a culture that is inclusive to all of its employees. As leaders in the industry, we are striving to cultivate a more equitable and fair workplace that gives every employee, regardless of sex or gender, an opportunity to become a leader. Alessandra “Ale” Costa is Vice President Technical Field Operations. Alessandra holds a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Microelectronics from the University of Genoa in Italy. According to the US Department of Commerce, women fill close to half of all jobs in the US economy, but hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. Ale is challenging the status quo by not only being a part of the STEM field, but by leading a large group of engineers and therefore setting an example of excellence for other women in STEM. She joined Cadence in 1998 and over the years, the team of application engineers that she manages has grown from 20 to 40 to 150, and today, she oversees 500 Virtuoso® application engineers across North America. Through her leadership, Cadence employees are creating technology that transforms lives and changes the future of technology. Being a female leader in a male-dominated field may be a jarring position to be in, but Ale does not let her gender deter her from being an effective leader. “Sometimes women feel they have to demonstrate more than men to prove that they are capable, but I feel that in my case I didn’t have to go through that,” said Ale. “I didn’t have to do more justification than what was needed or prove myself more just because I am a woman. I was prepared and able to fulfill my duties and that was enough.” Ale demonstrates her leadership skills and influence in ways outside of her position by empowering other women within the WFO organization. She helped to create the Women of WFO (WOW) group at Cadence. WOW promotes initiatives and programs centered on women in WFO and focuses on different aspects of work/life balance within the sales team. The group believes, as their mission states, that “building a diverse and inclusive workforce is the right thing to do.” Their goals include attracting new talent, increasing job satisfaction, and motivating top talent among the WFO women to create a pipeline of future leaders. It empowers women to rise up the ranks and take leadership and development opportunities into their own hands.

I didn’t have to do more justification than what was needed or prove myself more just because I am a woman. I was prepared and able to fulfill my duties and that was enough. Alessandra Costa

They trusted me and

believed that I could do the job well, even if it was a leap of faith. My leadership believed in me. Cadence believed in me. Alessandra Costa “WOW is something I believe in strongly and that I’m leading. We’re providing many great opportunities for women including leadership conferences and mentorship,” said Neil Zaman, Senior Vice President Worldwide Field Operations. “I’m proud of what we’re putting together and know this will help elevate the team.” WOW is just one of many Cadence® programs and initiatives designed to support women in STEM careers and foster a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our Women @ Cadence program, which was shaped by the success of WOW, connects women across the company and creates a network for learning and engagement. W@C regularly holds speaker series, training events, and networking events to empower our female employees. We also recruit through the Society of Women Engineers, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, IEEE, and other platforms to hire more trailblazing women like Ale. “Cadence contributed to my growth by providing me with opportunities,” said Ale. “They trusted me and believed that I could do the job well, even if it was a leap of faith. My leadership believed in me. Cadence believed in me.”

ELEVATE THE BRAND Showing the Right Side of Cadence An Interview with Suzie Im Cadence enables our customers to create cutting-edge technologies. This is a key foundation to our brand. An organization’s website is a critical component of their brand and often creates a first impression for customers, job candidates, and employees. A site that is authentic and effective creates a positive visitor experience that results in a good impression and reinforces a company’s strong brand. Our executive and marketing team understood it was necessary to update our website so that it would reflect our company’s innovative and modern spirit. Nimish Modi, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, announced the update at the Cadence Quarterly all-hands meeting last August. Nimish needed someone who would lead the design project with care, attention to detail, and a deep understanding of the Cadence® brand. That’s where Suzie Im, Marketing Director, fits in. “The website revamp was so important for our company,” said Suzie. “It had been seven years since our last website update. Design, user experience, and technology trends advance at breakneck speeds in the web world, so we had some catching up to do.” The redesign was an important element in corporate marketing’s initiative to elevate the Cadence brand. Suzie had only six months to deliver a successful design, prototype, and final version of the site that would fit onto mobile, tablet, and desktop platforms. “Good enough wasn’t good enough. The site needed to be perfect,” said Suzie. “It had to be bug free and have a pixelperfect design that was beautiful and showed off who we are as an organization and where we want to go.” With such high stakes for the site to succeed, the pressure was on, but Suzie felt empowered and enabled by management throughout the process. Nimish trusted Suzie to lead the design project because of her passion for creativity, deep knowledge of the Cadence brand, and web design skills. “It was a good feeling having the support and trust from Nimish throughout this whole process,” said Suzie. “Just knowing what you’re doing isn’t enough; having that management trust and support is really powerful.” In order to get the look and feel of the site just right, Suzie spent 60 hours a week working with over 10 team members across several teams including Marketing, IT, and Executive Management.

It was the great collaboration that led to delivering a successful site. Everyone I worked with was as eager and motivated as I was to build a site that looks great. I am honored to have that spotlight, but it did take a village to accomplish this. Suzie Im

Good enough wasn’t good enough. The site needed to be perfect. It had to be bugfree and have a pixel-perfect design that was beautiful and showed off who we are as an organization and where we want to go. Suzie Im In the end, the team led by Suzie delivered a site that exceeded all expectations. Since the redesign, more visitors are downloading content from the Cadence site and overall traffic has increased by 18% year over year. For her work on updating the website, Suzie received the highest employee award Cadence offers—the Cadence Achievement Award. She also won two industry web awards from Graphic Design USA and another from Horizon Interactive, which validate the work that she and the team accomplished. “It was the great collaboration that led to delivering a successful site. Everyone I worked with was as eager and motivated as I was to build a site that looks great,” said Suzie. “I am honored to have that spotlight, but it did take a village to accomplish this.”

EXCEED CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS Striving to Win for the Customers An Interview with Jeff Johnson Cadence enables its customers to create revolutionary products and experiences that will transform the world. Our employees work at lightning-fast speeds to meet high-pressure delivery deadlines. When the stakes are high and the pressure is on, employees rise to the occasion and lead their teams to exceed their goals. Jeff Johnson, Design Engineering Director in the IP Group (IPG), embodies that go-getter spirit that our customers rely on. He is a member of the IPG team in charge of foundry enablement, which ensures that the IC design team’s software environment is all set up for end manufacturing compatibility. Jeff’s team recently delivered a TSMC 7nm IP testchip to one of our key customers. This innovative product is changing the world of technology and enabling our customers to succeed in their markets. Cadence uses testchips as a way to validate the IP that we develop before our customers utilize it in their products. The testchip’s IP is a small building block in technology such as computers, cell phones, cars, and other electronics. 7nm references the size of an individual transistor. “Our 7nm testchip is very leading edge in both design and process technology,” said Jeff. “When making things that small, there are a lot of complicated rules and requirements to build it. These constraints necessitate a tremendous coordinated design team effort.” For the customers, it’s about packing more functionality into their products at a better price, but the big design goal on this particular chip was power efficiency for its size. “Every advanced process node that we do for our customers gets harder because they go from 16 nanometer (nm) to 10nm to 7nm,” said Jeff. “And while the jump from 10nm to 7nm was less complex than going from 16nm to 10nm, the customer needed the testchip delivered in a fraction of the previous design time. It was a demanding challenge but we know that our customers depend on us to deliver and we didn’t want to let them down.” The team had six months to deliver the testchip to their customer—two months less time than the last delivery. As the deadline quickly approached, Jeff began to worry that his team would not be able to deliver the testchip to the customer on time. Of all the different components that go into the testchip, putting the IP together proved to be the most challenging in meeting the deadline. “From my perspective at a late stage in the project, I saw that we were in trouble and I knew what it would mean to all of us if we couldn’t deliver,” said Jeff. “If the testchip didn’t go out, all our work would have been for nothing as there is no slack in the delivery deadline.”

We were all putting in those extra hours and sweat to deliver on time. My team was busting their butt just as much as I was and I’m proud of what we accomplished for our customer. Jeff Johnson

Cadence employees across the world all share that same drive and passion to make the customers win. Jeff Johnson

Seeing the possibility that the team may not meet the schedule, Jeff took on a leadership role and sternly led the charge to get the project completed on time. Jeff joined Cadence in 2002 as a part of the IP development group and over time has developed a reputation for being a get-it-done kind of guy. His driven attitude and deep technical experience give customers the confidence that Cadence is committed to executing on our commitments. Jeff motivated the team and led the charge to complete the testchip on time. When it came time to deliver for the customer, Jeff was inspired by the team’s shared level of dedication to exceed on our customers’ needs. “No matter who you talk to or where you work, we all have the same ‘we need to make this successful for our customers’ attitude,” said Jeff. “Cadence employees across the world all share that same drive and passion to make the customers win.” In the end, the team delivered the 7nm testchip on time and Jeff recently received the Cadence® Achievement Award in recognition of his leadership on the project. “I’m honored to receive the Cadence Achievement Award, but receiving this award really was a team effort,” said Jeff. “We were all putting in those extra hours and sweat to deliver on time. My team was busting their butts just as much as I was and I’m proud of what we accomplished for our customer.”

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE Innovating New Technology An Interview with Arnold Ginetti Cadence plays a critical role in creating the technologies that modern life depends on. Employees in every function are passionate about playing an active role in helping to create tomorrow’s world of technology. Arnold Ginetti, Cadence fellow, demonstrates that determination in his work. It is that passion and drive that led him to achieve the first-ever Cadence® Master Patent award for submitting a record number of patents in a single year. “I am happy because I see my patents in the products that the customers use and it allows them to build these revolutionary products,” said Arnold. “I am very proud and very happy because I worked hard to submit those patents.” In 2013, Cadence established a program to recognize employees for their innovations and increase awareness of the value of their patents. This program recognizes not just filed patent applications, but also valuable inventions that are kept as trade secrets or published. This program focuses on those ideas that are submitted as part of the Invention Disclosure Form (IDF) process. Each time an employee submits an innovation form to the Cadence Patent Committee, that employee collects and accumulates points toward the Invention Milestone Award. It’s an honorific award that has four levels: silver, then gold, then platinum, then master. An IDF Rated Mandatory Publication is worth one point, an IDF Rated Trade Secret is two points, and each IDF Rated File is worth three points. Arnold amassed over 75 points in the past year, qualifying him for the first-ever Master Patent Award. “Cadence keeps on encouraging innovation by rewarding innovation. The leaders and managers ask engineers to share their innovation, and continuously repeat that the only way to continue to be successful is through innovation,” said Arnold. “Beyond the Invention Milestone Awards, Cadence also organizes events like Innovation Day to get us thinking outside of the box. It’s a great environment to be a part of.” During his tenure at Cadence, Arnold has submitted over 82 IDFs to the Cadence Patent Committee—over 50 of which were approved for filing to the US Patent office. And 32 of his Cadence patents have been approved by the US patent office. Arnold joined Cadence in 1997 and during his tenure he has improved a number of our products with his innovative patents. He has over five granted patents on the Innovus™ platform’s technology mapper, a recently announced product, and over 30 granted patents on the Virtuoso® platform’s full custom editing method. As our flagship product,

What we are doing here at Cadence is helping the customers. To enable them to work faster and build better products. Arnold Ginetti

I keep on getting very interesting projects to work on. I am constantly given opportunities to innovate in my work and do work that is important. Arnold Ginetti the Virtuoso platform helps customers design analog and full-custom products by providing three distinct, but essential solutions: the front-end to create schematics, the back-end to create layouts, and an analog design verification system. These products are used to create the electronic foundation for nearly every imaginable technology that our customers create. The patent Arnold is most proud of is the Ultra-Fast Rendering Engine, which is part of the Virtuoso platform. It is an ultrafast high-resolution multi-threaded method to display full chip layout. When customers design a chip using our Virtuoso product, there could be millions of shapes on a circuit. Arnold’s patent presented a method to display all of these components in a fast and easier to digest view. The Ultra-Fast Rendering Engine improves customers’ experience using the Virtuoso platform when maneuvering through the minute but crucial components of the chips they are building. “What we are doing here at Cadence is helping the customers by enabling them to work faster and build better products,” said Arnold. “I keep on getting very interesting projects to work on. I am constantly given opportunities to innovate in my work and do work that is important.”

CADENCE ACADEMIC NETWORK REACHES TRAINING DONATION MILESTONE Cultivating the Next Generation of Innovators An Interview with Patrick Haspel The Cadence® Academic Network is our organization’s bridge between industry and academia. The Cadence Academic Network builds collaborative partnerships with researchers at top universities around the globe, expands our pool of potential employee candidates, and cultivates, educates, and trains the future leaders of Cadence and the electronic design automation (EDA) industry. This year, the Cadence Academic Network provided its 1,000th training through the University Software Program, which gives professors access to Cadence products and support so they can teach students about electronic design. The University Software Program has introduced Cadence technology to more than thirty thousand students and professors at hundreds of universities globally. The online trainings are offered as part of the university’s membership. In North America alone, there are 263 active universities who use the training. “The work we do with the University Software Program is very important because it helps to attract and retain talent before they even know they want to work at Cadence,” said Patrick Haspel, Program Director of Academic Partnerships. “Students who interact with our products early on in their education will have a greater connection with our company, thus having a higher interest in bringing their talents to Cadence.” Matthew Morrison, an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi, is just one example of the many academic staff members that Patrick has built relationships with. “I have been tasked to build a Computer Engineering program from the ground up, both creating classes and building an effective research program,” said Matthew. “The Cadence [training] courses have been tremendously useful in rapidly improving my research team and students’ skill set in electronic design automation.”

Students who interact with our products early on in their education will have a greater connection with our company, thus having a higher interest in bringing their talents to Cadence. Patrick Haspel

Employees can reach out to other groups that they know might be involved or interested in what they’d like to do. Cadence is such a supportive environment, it allows employees to be their best and do their best work. Patrick Haspel Established in 2007, the Cadence Academic Network consists of three categories: University Software Program—providing educational institutions easy access to Cadence technology and enabling them to make sophisticated use of these technologies; Academic Partnerships—fostering collaboration between academia and industry; and University Recruiting— offering post-college graduates employment opportunities to be part of Cadence’s winning team as we transform the EDA industry. By making our products readily available for educational instruction and fundamental research, Cadence is bringing innovative ideas into reality for years to come.

A SOLDIER’S STORY Pursuing Personal Passion An Interview with Nunio Villegas Cadence values innovative thinking, communicating effectively, supporting each other, and giving back. Being a member of the armed forces is a commitment and a sacrifice that many will never experience. Having an accommodating and understanding employer in a soldier’s civilian life can be critical to them before, during, and after deployment. Cadence strives to be a pillar of stability and support for its employees who are enlisted in the armed services. Nunio Villegas is a Services Staffing Coordinator for Cadence. He organizes training courses for employees by ordering materials, coordinating with instructors, and communicating with vendors. Since joining Cadence in 2000, he has been deployed four times. Nunio says Cadence is a shining example of how to support soldiers so that they may focus on their duty. “Cadence goes a long way for its soldiers and it makes it easier for me because every time I get deployed all I have to do is alert my manager,” said Nunio. “I’ve heard so many horror stories about employers from other soldiers. I am thankful for Cadence because I feel 100 percent supported here. For your employer to be so accommodating makes a really big difference to a soldier.” Nunio serves as a Transportation Management Coordinator in the army. He is responsible for mapping the safest possible routes for military vehicles and personnel navigating foreign regions. Serving is just a fraction of the challenges that soldiers face. Deployment can be tough on soldiers’ relationships and personal lives. Many soldiers return home expecting to find everything exactly as they left it, but that is not always what they find. After his deployments, Nunio says Cadence helped him readjust to the new version of his civilian life. “Cadence was a comfort to me. It offered stability for me while things were falling apart in my civilian life,” said Nunio. “After a little retraining, I was able to come back to Cadence and pick right back up where I left off.” Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), Cadence held his job for him when he returned from service. While laws such as the USERRA protect the employment of servicemen, Cadence goes beyond what the law requires to support its soldiers. For up to one year, Cadence pays the difference between what a soldier is paid during deployment and what they were making as a civilian working at Cadence. Whether a solider is gone for a month for training or a whole year of

Cadence was a comfort to me. It offered stability for me while things were falling apart in my civilian life. After a little retraining, I was able to come back to Cadence and pick right back up where I left off. Nunio Villegas

Cadence goes a long way for its soldiers and it makes it easier for me because every time I get deployed all I have to do is alert my manager. Nunio Villegas

deployment, Cadence pays the difference. Cadence recognizes that while the soldier is deployed, they may still have families, children in schools, mortgages to pay, and keeping full pay is critical to maintaining their and their family’s standard of living. By going this extra mile, we demonstrate how deeply we care for our service personnel. Beyond company benefits and policy, we also care for our soldiers on an interpersonal level. During his tour in Iraq, Nunio’s Cadence teammates sent him care packages filled with baby wipes, beef jerky, and other useful items that boosted his morale until he returned. This thoughtful gesture made him feel especially supported. “I joined the army reserves in 1998 and Cadence has really made it easy for me to serve,” said Nunio. “That’s probably why I’ve stayed in the military for so long, because it doesn’t cause any friction. I’ve really had a good experience with Cadence as my employer.”

DOING WORK THAT MATTERS Leading the Community An Interview with Rene Spring Cadence has made a strong commitment to giving back, not only to benefit our communities, but to engage our employees. Cadence believes that employees who are passionate about their communities are also the kinds of employees who are passionate about their work. Rene Spring, Director of Program Management for CPG, is one of those passionate employees. In addition to his full-time role with Cadence, Rene spends more than 40 hours a month serving his community as a member of the Morgan Hill City Council. “I like that Cadence has been rolling out a stronger focus on community involvement in recent years,” said Rene. “It helps people like me to give back to the community and volunteer my time. These values make it a rewarding place to work.” Cadence empowers employee giving by providing five days of paid Volunteer Time Off and matching donations up to $1,000 to the charities of their choice. In addition, we sponsored over 45 different charity projects of our employees’ choosing as part of our global Season of Giving volunteer campaign and Day of Giving celebrations last year. “I have friends who work for other companies that are not as supportive as Cadence in regard to volunteering and flexibility. It made my decision to run for council a lot easier because I knew I would be able to juggle both without impacting my job,” said Rene. “I’ve met a lot of great people in my community from my city council job. It’s great to give back to my community in this function as a councilman.” Rene has always been passionate about giving back. In 1998, he immigrated to the United States from Switzerland, where there is a huge emphasis on volunteering and philanthropy. “I’ve always had that passion for volunteering. It’s part of the culture in Switzerland,” said Rene. “I missed doing that when I moved over here. And a few years back, I started getting involved in my own community and I’ve been loving it ever since. I love volunteering. It enhances my life in a great way.” Since joining Cadence in 2001, Rene has grown as a leader in his community. He served the City of Morgan Hill as Planning Commissioner. He’s also volunteered as board member and president for Leadership Morgan Hill, which trains and develops leaders for local political, economic, and government structures. He also volunteered as a board member and president of the Morgan Hill Community Foundation, which awards grants and scholarships to local students and nonprofits.

I have friends who work for other companies that are not as supportive as Cadence in regards to volunteering and flexibility. It made my decision to run for council a lot easier because I knew I would be able to juggle both without impacting my job. Rene Spring

Cadence really is a great place to work. The company, the leadership, and the people I work with have enabled me to volunteer and be so involved in my community. I feel very supported here at Cadence. Rene Spring Last November, he won a seat for city council in Morgan Hill, where he’s been a resident for 13 years. Morgan Hill has the largest amount of farmland in Santa Clara County, and Rene ran because he wanted to take measures to preserve that identity. “I love Morgan Hill. Despite its closeness to San Jose, it’s still very much a beautiful, small rural city,” said Rene. “I ran to make a positive impact in the community and to defend the city’s unique identity.” Recently, a majority of Morgan Hill City Council voted for his motion to lower the residential building allotments from 215 to 195 per year as a means to regulate the city’s growth. During his campaign for city council, Rene preferred to keep his professional and political life separate, however, his Cadence teammates were happy to support his race through donations, social media sharing, feedback, and endorsements. One coworker let him erect a giant poster on her family’s property in support of Rene and a dozen other teammates donated money to his campaign. “Cadence really is a great place to work,” said Rene. “The company, the leadership, and the people I work with have enabled me to volunteer and be so involved in my community. I feel very supported here at Cadence.”

MEANINGFUL WORK. GLOBAL IMPACT.