Willem P. "Wim" Roelandts was named chief executive officer of Xilinx, Inc., on January 11, 1996. He is responsible for formulating the company's overall strategy and providing the leadership, vision and focus necessary for Xilinx to continue its pace of rapid growth and expansion. 

Roelandts joined the company from Hewlett-Packard, where he most recently served as senior vice president and was responsible for all aspects of HP's worldwide computer systems business, including research and development, manufacturing, marketing, professional services and sales. 

Roelandts' career at Hewlett-Packard began in 1967 when he was hired as a service engineer in Belgium. Later, he held a number of management positions in engineering and research and development at HP's former Grenoble Division in France, where he became the operations manager in 1982. In 1983, he was named the R&D manager for HP's Information Networks Division in Cupertino and was promoted to general manager for the Information Networks Group in 1985. 

Roelandts was elected an HP vice president in 1988 and became general manager of the Computer Systems Group later that year. When HP realigned its computer business activities in 1990, he was named general manager of the networked systems group. In 1992, Roelandts was named general manager of the computer systems organization, and in 1993, elected a senior vice president. 

Roelandts holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rijks Hogere Technische School in Anderlecht, Belgium.