LONDON – Hossein Yassaie, CEO of Imagination Technologies Group plc, has been knighted for services to technology and innovation in the New Year Honors for 2013.
Imagination (Kings Langley, England) was founded as VideoLogic Ltd. and Yassaie joined as CTO in 1992 before becoming CEO and taking the company public as Imagination.
"I am absolutely delighted and deeply humbled to receive such prestigious recognition. This distinguished honor means a great deal to me both personally and professionally. I have always wanted to make a real difference by what I do and I see this honor not only as a major recognition for past effort but as a real encouragement for the future.
"I strongly believe success in life also depends on support and commitment from family, friends, work colleagues and business partners. I have been very fortunate in this respect and see this honor as much theirs as mine."
Yassaie was born in Iran and came to the U.K to study at Birmingham University before working for Inmos Ltd. and STMicroelectronics. Yassaie has driven an intellectual property licensing strategy at Imagination based on graphics processing. Although it took time to gain traction the company benefitted from the need for power-efficient graphics in mobile phones and tablet computers. Imagination includes Apple Inc. and Intel Corp. amongst its customers and investors.
Imagination is listed on the London Stock Exchange, has a market capitalization of over $1.5 billion, employs more than 1,300 people worldwide, and develops and licenses key technologies used in over one billion products, from the most advanced smart phones to tablets, televisions and digital radios.
Sir Hossein Yassaie, CEO of ImaginationA British national, Hossein gained a BSc degree (1979) and PhD degree (1982) from Birmingham University in Electronics and Communication Engineering as well as serving as a Research Fellow.
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