ARM Holdings CEO Warren East announced today that he will be stepping down after 12 years at the helm. He will be replaced on 1 July by ARM president, Simon Segars, a 22-year veteran of the semiconductor developer.

The Cambridge-based tech firm has made its name in creating designs and owning the intellectual property rights for semiconductors and microprocessors. However, through its partnerships with over 1000 worldwide technology firms, it has also become a thought leader in the business world, marketing and communications director Ellie Springett tells Communicate.

She says, “ARM is a global world leader in semiconductor IP. But the reality is that we have shifted that into being a global technology business leader that operates in 36 different countries and that shapes the technology you and I hold in the palm of our hands. How can we use the values and the structure of the business to help shape how different businesses might operate in the future?”

ARM has expanded through its partnerships and allowed its communications to speak through its own work and its partners’ use of ARM’s designs. East says ARM has become a global business with a global outlook, "I've tried in install a really long-term view into our product planning and business development appproach and as part of that long-term view I believe now is the right time to bring in new leadership, somebody who can push the thinking even further forward and be sure to be around to implement those future plans.”

East has overseen an expansion in annual sales from £146 million in 2001 to £577 million in 2012 and its value far outstrips tech competitors Intel and Apple.

To read more about ARM Holdings' communications strategies and position in the tech world, see Communicate's March issue in print or at communicatemagazine.co.uk/onmyipad.