John Colin Adams was in the first graduating BSc’s from the Department of Computer Science at Edinburgh University in 1971, subsequently joining the department doing his doctorate and post doctoral research in the area of Operating Systems.

 

In 1979 he joined Digital Equipment Corporation in the US, where he became the Software Engineering Manager responsible for a major part of the VAX/VMS Operating System development.

 

He returned to the UK with DEC to lead the Office Automation Software Engineering Business Group and the ALL-in-1 product line. He helped found the quick-turn, low-volume ASIC provider, European Silicon Structures (ES2) in 1985, followed by the EDA start-up EuCAD which he merged into Cadence Design Systems. At Cadence he was VP/GM of various elements of the R&D business in Europe and the US, finally moving to Cadence’s Electronic Design Services arm which was being prepared in 2000 to spinout as TALITY. He held General Manager positions for several of the divisions within that business, becoming the VP/GM for the global business and eventually merging that back into Cadence.

He was also involved in the Scottish Enterprise Project Alba in the late 1990’s.  He returned to the School of Informatics in 2006 as Director of Commercialisation.