Phil O'Donovan

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Phil O’Donovan
FREng, FIET, CEng
BornApril 1950
Whitechapel, London
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Warwick (BSc)
University of Birmingham (MSc)
University of Essex (PhD)
Employer(s)AERE Harwell
Standard Telecommunication Laboratories Ltd
High Integrity Systems Ltd
Cambridge Consultants Ltd
CSR plc
Known forEngineer, Entrepreneur & Speaker, Angel investor
AwardsCEng (1982)
FIET (2003)
RAEng MacRobert Award (2005)[1]
FREng (2017)
Honorary Dr of the University, University of Essex (2019)
Honorary Professor, Essex Business School (2023)

Phil O'Donovan is a British engineer and entrepreneur. He was a co-founder of Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd which, as London Stock Exchange FTSE 250 company CSR plc, became the Bluetooth chip market leader.

Education[edit]

O'Donovan obtained a BSc in Electrical Engineering Science at the University of Warwick,[2] an MSc in Information and Communications Systems at Birmingham University,[3] and a PhD at Essex University.[4][5][6]

Career[edit]

O'Donovan joined the Microprocessor Applications Centre at AERE Harwell in 1975 as a Research Fellow where he developed and commissioned a range of rack-mounted Motorola 6800 microprocessor-based modules for automating the use of scanning electron microscopes. In 1978, in support of ITT’s need to exploit microprocessor technology, he joined David Wright’s Microprocessor Technology Centre at ITT’s European research laboratory, Standard Telecommunication Laboratories (STL) in Harlow, where he supported ITT product companies worldwide in their selection and design of microprocessors in to phones, PABXes and Public exchanges.[7]

At STL, O’Donovan bid and was Project Manager of the UK Alvey[8] Programme’s Adaptive Intelligent Dialogues (AID) user interface project led by Standard Telephones and Cables (which had acquired computer company ICL in 1984). The AID project researched the auto-adaption of user interfaces to meet individual user needs[9] and brought together techniques from computer science, artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology in a collaborative pre-competitive project involving six UK companies and universities.[10]

At STL, O’Donovan also became Project Manager of the Functional Analysis of Office Requirements (FAOR) project, funded by the European ESPRIT programme.[11] The FAOR project involved two companies and three universities spanning the UK, Denmark and Germany and developed a methodology for determination of the requirements necessary for an office system to meet pre-defined organisational needs.[12][13]

O’Donovan left STL in 1986 as Chief Research Engineer and joined former STL colleagues at Harlow-based High Integrity Systems, founded to exploit application of the ADA programming language and support of the Intel iAPX 432 high-performance transparent multiprocessing microprocessor. He grew HIS’ revenue by winning contract design and development projects with defence (MOD), communications (INMARSAT) and telecoms players (Nortel) in the UK.

In 1991, O'Donovan joined Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL), the product design and development business of Arthur D. Little, where he became VP Telecoms and bid and won the Ericsson ERMES / FLEX pager chip development, the design of which in standard CMOS, was led by James Collier and which inspired the subsequent creation of Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd.[14] In October 1998, O’Donovan and eight co-founders spun Cambridge Silicon Radio out of CCL.[15][16][17] CSR was first to market in 2001 with its single chip Bluetooth device, BlueCore01TM, which operated at 2.4 GHz, was fabricated in commodity CMOS technology and which provided CSR with an inherent cost advantage.[18]

Front Row Left to Right = Robert Young, Phil O’Donovan, James Collier, Justin Penfold
Back Row Left to Right = Jonathan Kimmitt, Carl Orsborn, Graham Pink, Glenn Collinson, Ian Sabberton.

As founding managing director, O'Donovan led Cambridge Silicon Radio to establish an early lead in the Bluetooth chip market as a fabless semiconductor company supplying hundreds of global high-volume manufacturers.[19][20][21] CSR's early growth was rapid; it had won 500 qualified Bluetooth designs by June 2004,[22][23][24] and by April 2008, had shipped more than a billion chips.[25] CSR joined the London Stock Exchange in April 2004 as CSR plc,[26] and became a FTSE 250 company in June of the same year.[27][28][29] More than 98% of CSR’s chips were drop-shipped annually to customers outside the UK from CSR’s foundries including STMicroelectronics in France and TSMC in Taiwan leading to CSR receiving a Queen’s Award for Enterprise (International Trade) in April 2004.[30] In 2005, CSR together with the team comprising John Hodgson, Phil O’Donovan, James Collier, Glenn Collinson and Chris Ladas won the RAEng MacRobert Award for developing and bringing to market CSR's Bluetooth chip BlueCore01TM.[31]

CSR's annual revenue reached $1billion in 2012 and, by 2015, employed more than 2,000 people in 23 locations around the world. By 2015, CSR had become the largest global supplier of Bluetooth chips having shipped 4 billion devices.[32] CSR made eight acquisitions and one divestiture prior to 2015 and, following interest from a number of companies,[33] CSR was acquired by US company Qualcomm Inc in September 2015 for $2.5billion.[34][35][36]

Recent career[edit]

Following CSR’s flotation, O'Donovan became a member of, and invests alongside, the Cambridge Angels, a group of 60 investors in the "greater Cambridge region" most of whom are successful hands-on exited-entrepreneurs.[37]

O’Donovan invests in and directs emerging hard technology companies.[38] Examples include; Oval Medical Technologies (mechanical auto-injectors) sold to SMC Ltd of the US,[39] Neul (radio communications technology) sold to Huawei[40] and ROADMap Systems (optical wavelength-selective switches) sold to Huber+Suhner.[41] He is currently the chair of Forefront RF (front-end modules for phone, wearable and IoT products) founded in late 2020.[42][43]

O’Donovan speaks on entrepreneurial topics at universities and business schools and in Cambridge, for example, he is or has been an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cambridge University's Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, a Fellow and speaker at the Judge Business School and a mentor and speaker on the Maxwell Centre's Impulse Programme where his contributions are based upon his experience and are pragmatic in nature.[44][45]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Holland, Colin (June 3, 2005). "CSR wins MacRobert award". Embedded.
  2. ^ "50 Years of Warwick Enterprise: Phil O'Donovan advises would-be-entrepreneurs". University of Warwick. April 6, 2015.
  3. ^ "Adaptive control of a flexible linear array". IET Digital Library.
  4. ^ "Proximal scanning systems: improved resolution using inclined optical fibers". Applied Optics.
  5. ^ "Heuristic Algorithm for Reducing Large Product-of-Sums Logical Expressions". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
  6. ^ "Character Recognition Using Optical Fibres and Hardwired Logic". British Library. 1978.
  7. ^ "30 years in Harlow – A history of STL". STL QCC.
  8. ^ Oakley, Brian (April 26, 1990). Alvey Britain's Strategic Computing Initiative. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262150385.
  9. ^ "Alvey support for MMI projects". Electronics & Power. February 1980.
  10. ^ Browne, Dermot (January 28, 1990). Adaptive User Interfaces. ISBN 9781483294254.
  11. ^ "Functional Analysis of Office Requirements". Community Research and Development Information Service.
  12. ^ "87' Achievements and Impact" (PDF). ESPIRIT.
  13. ^ Functional Analysis of Office Requirements: A Multiperspective Approach (John Wiley Series in Information Systems). July 1988. ISBN 0471917710.
  14. ^ "Cambridge Silicon Radio". 3i.
  15. ^ Rosenberg, David (November 12, 2001). Cloning Silicon Valley: the next generation high tech hotspots. Reuters. pp. 74–76.
  16. ^ Connell, David (2007–2008). "Secrets of the World's Largest Seed Capital Fund" (PDF). Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge. p. 1.
  17. ^ "Bluetooth (CSR)". Cambridge Phenomenon. 2019.
  18. ^ "CSR's Bluetooth chip wins industry qualification". Electronics Weekly. November 11, 2000.
  19. ^ "Now's the time to digest talk of a new digital age". Marketing Week. March 5, 2000.
  20. ^ "Using DFM for competitive advantage". Tech Design Forums.
  21. ^ Rockman, SImon. "In a mall at the weekend? WORSE STILL, are you LOST?". The Register.
  22. ^ "Cambridge Bluetooth firm wins major design-in". Electronics Weekly. April 6, 2000.
  23. ^ Holland, Colin (May 6, 2004). "CSR boosts profits and jobs". Embedded.
  24. ^ Bowers, Simon (February 7, 2001). "CSR takes the lead in unplugged future". The Guardian.
  25. ^ "CSR reaches one billion chips milestone". Business Weekly. April 17, 2008.
  26. ^ "CSR Pricing shows investors regaining appetite for floats". The Independent. February 27, 2004.
  27. ^ Walko, John (November 3, 2003). "Cambridge Silicon Radio joins IPO move, says report". EE Times.
  28. ^ "Spin-Out Doctors". The Guardian.
  29. ^ Holland, Colin (December 17, 2004). "CSR wins techMARK Achievement of the Year Award". Embedded.
  30. ^ "Higher quality makes up for fall in quantity of Queens Awards". The Independent.
  31. ^ "iPod and Bluetooth lead to prizes". BBC. June 3, 2005.
  32. ^ "US SEC FORM 20-F Annual Report and Financial Statements for CSR plc for 2012". Securities and Exchange Commission.
  33. ^ "Fresh suitors could trigger CSR bidding war". Business Weekly. August 6, 2014.
  34. ^ "Qualcomm Acquires CSR To Accelerate Its Growth In IoT". Forbes. October 21, 2014.
  35. ^ Higginbottom, Stacey. "Here's what's next for Qualcomm as it completes its $2.4 billion CSR buy". Fortune.
  36. ^ "Is the UK's flagship industrial policy a costly failure?" (PDF). University of Cambridge. May 2021.
  37. ^ "Official website". Cambridge Angels.
  38. ^ Quested, Tony. "Torch bearers of tomorrow grab flame of inspiration". Business Weekly.
  39. ^ "SMC acquires UK auto- injector developer Oval Medical Technologies". Mass Device. December 16, 2016.
  40. ^ "Neul sold to Huawei for $25 million". Business Weekly. September 19, 2014.
  41. ^ "HUBER+SUHNER ACQUIRES WAVELENGTH-SELECTIVE SWITCH TECHNOLOGY TO STRENGTHEN OPTICAL NETWORK AUTOMATION PORTFOLIO". Huber+Suhner.
  42. ^ "2021 in Review: EMEA Startup Funding Deals". EE Times. January 4, 2022.
  43. ^ Quested, Tony. "Forefront RF clinches £6.7m growth capital for fabless chip scale-up". Business Weekly.
  44. ^ "Impulse". Maxwell Centre.
  45. ^ "Cambridge turns light bulb moments into lightning storm". Business Weekly.
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