Imagination hires Tim Whitfield as new Chief of Engineering

Executive management board further reinforced by new CFO and CHRO appointments

London, England – December 1, 2020 – Imagination Technologies announces the appointment of Tim Whitfield as COE (Chief of Engineering) with responsibility for the majority of the company’s engineering activities. Whitfield joins Imagination from Arm where he was most recently VP Strategy, having held a range of management positions over a 20-year tenure.

The appointment will provide renewed engineering leadership as Imagination focuses on its world-leading graphics, vision, compute and AI processing technologies. Imagination’s strategy is to align its IP to the high-growth and high-value segments that are driving semiconductor demand now and in the future.

The appointment reinforces other recent changes in Imagination’s executive management, including the permanent appointment of Mark Logan as CFO (Chief Finance Officer) and Nick Merry as CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer), both of whom were previously contractors.

Imagination Technologies’ CEO, Simon Beresford-Wylie says: “Overall, the executive management board has seen almost every position refreshed over the past year and I am thrilled with the energy and talent now leading Imagination. It’s notable that our executive contractors have been sufficiently impressed with Imagination to want to make the jump to full time employee status. Given the quality of the work they’ve done for us to date, we’ve happily accepted them.

“With Tim joining the team, and the recent work we’ve undertaken on our strategy, Imagination is in a position to capitalise on the strong alignment between its core technologies and trends towards increasing reliance on mobile and computing for work and entertainment; automation, especially in automotive; and the mass adoption of AI in many markets.”

Simon Beresford-Wylie was appointed as Imagination’s Chief Executive Officer in October 2020. Beresford-Wylie was previously Chief Executive of Arqiva, a UK leader in the provision of communications, broadcast and media services.

John Richardson, Imagination’s General Counsel and Company Secretary, is also now part of the executive management board, joining Steve Evans, CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) and Chris Porthouse, CPO (Chief Product Officer), who were appointed in May 2020, and David Harold, CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), and Woz Ahmed, CSO/CoS (Chief Strategy Officer and Chief of Staff), who were appointed to those positions in December 2019.

Imagination also appointed Sir Peter Bonfield to the Company’s board as a non-executive director in September 2020. Sir Peter Bonfield has more than 50 years of experience in the international technology business and has served on the boards of 12 international technology companies, including Sony, NXP, Mentor Graphics and Ericsson.

Says Imagination Executive Chairman, Ray Bingham: “The new appointments have been made with the Board’s unanimous support and approval and represent excellent progress in the development of our executive capability. ‘Team Imagination’ is now in a great position to continue the significant growth the company has seen in 2020.”

About Imagination Technologies

Imagination is a UK-based company that creates silicon and software intellectual property (IP) designed to give its customers an edge in a competitive global technology market. Its graphics, compute, vision & AI, and connectivity technologies enable outstanding power, performance and area (PPA), robust security, fast time-to-market and lower total cost of ownership. Products based on Imagination IP are used by billions of people across the globe in their phones, cars, homes, and workplaces. Imagination Technologies was acquired in 2017 by Canyon Bridge, a global private equity investment fund. See www.imaginationtech.com