Wind River Announces Formation of Board of Directors

Wind River announces the formation of a Board of Directors and a Board Advisor designation. The appointments follow Wind River’s recent acquisition by TPG Capital from Intel.

The board and advisor members will provide perspective and guidance on the ongoing strategic direction of Wind River. They will also play an important role in helping the company as it works with customers to accelerate the evolution from automated devices to autonomous systems across a diverse range of use cases.

Each member is highly distinguished and brings extensive and proven executive management and technology expertise to help Wind River, representing key areas of the company’s business. The inaugural appointments joining Wind River President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Douglas include the following individuals:

Moshe Gavrielov (Executive Chairman) served as president and CEO at Xilinx, Inc., where he drove the company through a broad strategic and operational transformation resulting in a significant market cap expansion approaching a valuation of $20B. Prior to Xilinx, he served as executive vice president and general manager of the verification division at Cadence Design Systems. Before that, he was CEO of Verisity, Ltd., where he drove the company’s emergence from a small private entity, through a successful NASDAQ IPO, delivering ongoing profitable top and bottom-line growth leading to the eventual acquisition by Cadence for $315M.

Afshin Mohebbi served as president and chief operating officer of Qwest Communications International, Inc. Prior to Qwest, he was the president and managing director of United Kingdom Markets for British Telecom and a member of the company’s management board. Earlier, he was the president and managing director of BT’s business division. He currently serves as a senior advisor to TPG Capital, and is a member of board of directors of Dish Network, Digital Realty, Soraa, Artel, Apollo Towers, RCN Grande, and Wharf T&T.

Nehal Raj is a partner at TPG, where he is head of the firm’s Technology Group and leads the firm’s investment activities in the technology sector across its private equity platforms (TPG Capital, TPG Growth, and The Rise Fund). He is currently a director of C3 IoT, Domo, Dreambox Learning, EverFi, Noodle Analytics (Chairman), Sutherland Global Services, WellSky, and Zscaler. He previously served as director of Aptina Imaging (acquired by ON Semiconductor), CCC Information Services (acquired by Advent International), Decision Insight Information Group (acquired by CoreLogic), IMS Health (NYSE: IMS), Intergraph (acquired by Hexagon AB), and Symbility Solutions (TSX-V: SY).

Art Heidrich focuses on technology investments across TPG’s private equity platforms (TPG Capital, TPG Growth, and The Rise Fund). He has been or is currently involved with TPG’s investments in Advent Software, C3 IoT, Eze Software, IMS Health, RefleXion Medical, Sonatype, Vertafore, and WellSky. Prior to joining TPG, Art worked in the Technology group at Morgan Stanley where he advised on and executed M&A and corporate finance transactions.

Mark Fields (Board Advisor) served as president and CEO of Ford Motor Company and was a member of the company’s board of directors. He joined Ford in 1989 and progressed through a number of leadership positions, including executive vice president and president of the Americas, executive vice president and CEO of Premier Automotive Group and Ford Europe, chairman and CEO of the Premier Automotive Group, and president and CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation. He currently serves as a senior advisor to TPG and is a director on the following TPG portfolio companies: Ellucian, Fleetpride, ATD, and Transplace. He also serves as an independent director on Qualcomm, Inc.

“I am honored to welcome these accomplished leaders to the board at this pivotal and exciting time in Wind River’s history,” said Douglas. “Their counsel based on deep understanding of our evolving markets and customers’ digital transformations will be of significant benefit as we embark on this next phase as an independent company. The formation of this board underscores the steps we are taking to establish Wind River as the preeminent software provider for critical infrastructure.”

“It is a privilege to join the board as executive chairman and work with Jim and his exceptional team,” said Gavrielov. “I value the vision the company has laid out to accelerate the digital transformation of organizations across the globe with its unique and disruptive product portfolio. I look forward to sharing my experiences in growing and transforming companies, and contributing to the success of Wind River’s next chapter.”

“Wind River has been a pioneer in the software space for decades, and has built an exceptional customer base of industry-leading companies who rely on them for the technology that powers important modern infrastructure,” said Raj. “We look forward to working with Jim, Moshe, and the rest of the board to help the company capitalize on this tremendous market opportunity.”