A co-founder of Xilinx in 1984, Mr. Vonderschmitt served most recently as chief executive officer until his successor, Mr. Wim Roelandts, was appointed in January 1996. 

During his tenure at Xilinx, Vonderschmitt orchestrated the company's "fabless" strategy of forming close partnerships with semiconductor manufacturers, freeing Xilinx from costly capital investments in foundries and allowing the company to focus its resources on research, design and marketing. 

Vonderschmitt was instrumental in guiding Xilinx from a Silicon Valley startup with no products in 1984 to a multimillion dollar international business which today has over 1,300 employees, offices throughout North America, Asia and Europe and over 40 varieties of programmable logic products with companion design software. 

Prior to joining Xilinx, Vonderschmitt was vice president and general manager of the microprocessor division of Zilog, Inc., in San Jose. Before that, he served with RCA Corp. for more than 20 years, finishing his career there as vice president and general manager of the solid state division. Vonderschmitt holds 13 issued patents. During his career at RCA, he received the prestigious "David Sarnoff Award" for developments in integrated circuits. 

Vonderschmitt holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind., a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and an MBA from Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. Vonderschmitt serves on the board of directors for Sanmina Corp., Chips & Technologies, Inc., Credence Systems Corp., and IMP, Inc.