Silicon Valley Mourns James “Jim” Hogan’s Passing

The recent passing of James “Jim” Hogan from a heart attack came suddenly and as a surprise to almost everyone who knew him. The Electronic System Design (ESD) alliance - a SEMI Technology Community representing members in the electronic system and semiconductor design ecosystem – cited Jim as a noted industry investor, mentor, benefactor, and philanthropist.

Many who knew him described Jim as the “heart and soul” of the chip tool EDA and IP industry. This is not an understatement, as shown by the many heartful remembrances from a diversity of friends and colleagues on several different LinkedIn threads. The words that most often appeared in these tributes attested to Jim’s optimistic attitude, his genuine and authentic nature, his mentoring, and his sincerity in helping everyone both professionally or personally.

In addition to serving as a startup investor, advisor, or board member for over 20 startups during his long tenure in the semiconductor EDA space, Jim also founded the Heart of Technology project to give back to the community. Since 2009, the Heart of Technology has raised over $200,000 to benefit charities and nonprofits in need.

The catchphrase heard so often around Silicon Valley was, "You should talk to Jim". And they were right.  His insights, experience in all aspects of the EDA and IP industries, and connections made him the “go-to” person to know.

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My earliest meetings with Jim began in the early 2000s when I’d interview him at trade shows concerning press releases or for insights into EDA and IP trends. He was always happy to help and often shared unique angles for whatever assignment I was working on.  

Several years ago, Paul McLellan – another Silicon Valley veteran - wrote about his work with Jim back in the earliest of EDA days: “As you probably know, SDA, one of two parent companies that merged to create Cadence, was founded by Jim Solomon (the S of SDA) after he left National. At the time, Jim (Hogan) was also at National. Jim Solomon funded SDA partially by getting half a dozen companies to invest in return for access (you could do that back then), and National was one of the companies that took the bait. Jim managed that relationship for National.”

It would be difficult to capture all of Jim’s accomplished in his professional life in this article, but the following abbreviated list provides an idea of the breadth of his successes (from the most current to the earliest):

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In addition to his professional work, Jim enjoyed playing music. According to his family, several of his new songs will be listed on the Vista Roads YouTube channel soon.

For anyone wishing to do something in James H. Hogan's honor, his daughters are asking that donations be made to Casa For Children of Santa Cruz County. 

John Blyler is a Design News senior editor, covering the electronics and advanced manufacturing spaces. With a BS in Engineering Physics and an MS in Electrical Engineering, he has years of hardware-software-network systems experience as an editor and engineer within the advanced manufacturing, IoT and semiconductor industries. John has co-authored books related to system engineering and electronics for IEEE, Wiley, and Elsevier.