MIPI Alliance Announces Board Leadership Appointments

Hezi Saar of Synopsys appointed board chair; new vice chair and treasurer named for global organization developing interface specifications for mobile, IoT, automotive and related industries

BRIDGEWATER, N.J., January 22, 2025—The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, today announced the appointment of Hezi Saar from Synopsys, Inc. (Synopsys) as chair of the MIPI Alliance Board of Directors. Saar, who had served as board treasurer since 2016, assumed the chair role from longtime board member Sanjiv Desai, who stepped down in conjunction with his retirement from Intel Corporation.

Other board transitions include:

Gaurav Arora, head of systems architecture, home & health devices, at Google LLC, has assumed the vice chair role.
Thomas Schaeffer, a principal engineer and system architect in Intel’s Client Computing Group, has replaced Desai and assumed the treasurer role.

Saar, who joined the MIPI board as Synopsys’ representative in 2016, has more than 30 years of experience in semiconductors and embedded systems. Saar is an executive director of product management at Synopsys, responsible for the company's mobile, automotive and consumer IP product lines.

"With nearly a decade of service to the board, Hezi brings a wealth of industry and MIPI Alliance insight to lead the organization as more industries leverage MIPI specifications in their mobile, IoT, automotive and related designs," Desai said. "It’s been extremely rewarding to be a part of MIPI’s evolution since its early days, and I am confident the organization’s leadership and robust technology roadmap will help drive further growth across the entire expanded mobile ecosystem."

Outgoing chair Desai has played an instrumental role since joining the MIPI board as the Intel representative in 2006, first serving as treasurer, then assuming the vice chair role in 2013 and becoming chair in 2022. During his tenure on the board, MIPI specifications have experienced rapid extensibility into multiple industries including the IoT, automotive and industrial.

"Sanjiv’s leadership, foresight and industry knowledge were pivotal in creating MIPI’s comprehensive portfolio of widely implemented specifications and building the successful organization that MIPI Alliance is today," Saar said. "I intend to build on this foundation by advancing MIPI’s core technologies, enhancing member value, and expanding our specifications to support rapidly evolving areas such as machine vision, generative and edge AI, power-efficient architectures, and other transformative technologies shaping the future of mobile, consumer/client, IoT and automotive electronics."

Other current board directors include: Francis Dell'ova, STMicroelectronics; Baher Haroun, Texas Instruments Incorporated; Kyung Hyun Ko, Samsung Electronics, Co.; Thomas Lindenkreuz, Robert Bosch GmbH; and Rick Wietfeldt, Qualcomm Incorporated. Peter Lefkin, MIPI Alliance executive director, also serves as secretary on the board as a non-director officer.

About MIPI Alliance

MIPI Alliance (MIPI) develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries. There is at least one MIPI specification in every smartphone manufactured today. The organization has over 375 member companies worldwide and more than 15 active working groups delivering specifications within the extended mobile ecosystem. Members of the organization include handset manufacturers, device OEMs, software providers, semiconductor companies, application processor developers, IP tool providers, automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, and test and test equipment companies, as well as camera, display, tablet and laptop manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.mipi.org.