[Editor's Note: This article was first posted to EDA Weekly in January 2003.]

Penny Herscher's a tough guy and she knows it. She's tough mentally and she's tough physically. She's also smart and hard driving and funny and warm. Yeah, yeah - and she's a wife, a mom, a daughter, a sister and a friend for those who are uncomfortable with describing a woman as “tough.” If Herscher were a man, a senior executive, and subject of this profile, nobody would need to know if he was a husband, a dad, a son, a brother or a friend. But this is the real world and we're all who we are - there's no use pulling any punches. Penny's a tough guy and she's a woman. And these two things combined make her the right person for the hat she's currently wearing - Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. in San Jose, CA.

Penny Herscher

Her British accent notwithstanding, Herscher was born at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, CA. Her parents, both British nationals, were living in California where her father worked in the defense industry in Silicon Valley. Both of Herscher's parents are technologists - her dad, an engineer, and her mom as well. Herscher's mother was an engineer at Oxford and her grandmother was one of the original researchers into the affects of Vitamin C at her lab in Cambridge. Herscher credits support from both sides of the family - male and female - with her freedom to pursue alternative career paths. She says, “It never occurred to me that I couldn't do whatever I wanted to do. I was never told [to set limits].”

Though she returned to the U.K. at the tender age of 5, she had already picked up a strong American accent. Obviously appalled, her family attempted to remedy the flaw. “I was in elocution lessons for years trying to learn to speak like a real Brit,” she says, laughing. “Now my accent is categorized as 'mixed' by those in the know.”

Per the British system, Herscher entered boarding school at the age of 12 and started at Cambridge at 16. She immediately began her coursework for a major in mathematics. “I'm pretty narrow in my interests - it's been math ever since.” She did give engineering a brief look by way of an apprenticeship with British Aerospace, but hated the machine shop element of the program and went back to math. (Herscher's sister has a degree in physics from Cambridge.)

Design Automation & Silicon Valley

When she finished her degree, her gender-conscious counselors told Herscher that, as a woman, she could either be a teacher or go into banking. That all sounded a bit tame, so she sought out a job instead at Texas Instruments in Bedford, working in a design automation unit. There she learned to program (Basic and Fortran) and to understand the subtleties and strategies behind automated design software. The technology and the industry have been her passion ever since.

(Parenthetically, while at TI, she also learned to type. Herscher and her fellow programmers had to learn to type if they wanted to program, so she mastered the skill after having refused to do so for years, for fear it might one day cast her into a secretarial role.)

After Herscher's husband finished his PhD at Cambridge, they made the decision to relocate to Silicon Valley. She says she always loved California and had a desire to live in a place where the sky's the limit for a woman. Additionally, given their backgrounds, Herscher and her husband knew they could both find employment within the same geographical region if they came to Northern California.

Herscher went to work for Daisy Systems and spent 4 years there. She then worked at Synopsys, from 1988 to 1996, “when they were going from $0 [in annual revenue] to $400 million.” While she was at Synopsys, she gave birth to her children - and pushed the envelope by nursing her young during business meetings. She says, “To everyone's credit at Synopsys, nobody said a word!” Nursing her children at work was not her end goal, however. She says, “It was just part of my philosophy. You do what you've got to do to solve a problem. I needed to nurse the baby and I needed to be at work.” The solution was obvious.

Clearly a rising star at Synopsys - she eventually assumed the role of Vice President of Marketing - Herscher was on the short list of CEO candidates for the newly emerging Simplex Solutions Inc. According to the story, when the Board of Directors interviewed her for the job, they asked her quite bluntly how she thought she could handle the CEO's role with two small children in her life. Her response is said to have been, “Would you ask that same question if I were a man?” She got the job.

Simplex Solutions

Herscher served as CEO at Simplex from 1996 to 2000, and then Chairman of the Board until the Cadence acquisition. As the highly visible and articulate evangelist for the company, she engineered the IPO in May 2001 - wowing Wall Street (as EDA vendor Verisity had done earlier that year) at a time when tech stocks were in a numbing downward slide. Herscher credits many friends and mentors in helping her through the complexities of the IPO, including Joe Costello, Harvey Jones - both members of the Board at Simplex - and Cadence's Ray Bingham.

Addressing the widely reported differences between Joe Costello - CEO at Cadence for 11 years - and current management at Cadence, Herscher calls the situation ancient history. She says Costello was “materially involved” at Simplex during Herscher's tenure there. “He came to us by way of our purchase of Snaketech [Costello was on Snaketech's Board] and we were fortunate to have him. At that time, Joe was still emotionally conflicted about Cadence. However, he began to understand the importance of Cadence in Simplex's life and he moderated his position. Joe supported Cadence in the [Avanti] trial and has come full circle. When we were acquired by Cadence, he was happy for us. Today he's a big supporter and I know he'd do anything to help us.”

Herscher says it helped that both Joe Costello and Ray Bingham were heavily involved in Cadence's annual community fund-raiser, Stars & Strikes. Herscher has also invested a lot of time into the program and proudly says that the 10-year-old effort raised $996,000 in 2002 alone.

Cadence acquired Simplex in June 2002 and Herscher was named Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to Bingham. Her responsibilities include marketing, strategy, the Cadence Design Foundry business, and customer support. Herscher says that the acquisition occurred at the right moment for the two companies. “Cadence couldn't have taken us in any earlier. The defining moment for me was Cadence's acquisition of SPC [Silicon Perspective Corp.] and CadMOS in 2001. At Simplex, we had worked closely with CadMOS and had immense respect for Charlie Huang [CadMOS Founder and CEO]. Meanwhile, I had been friends with Ray for a number of years. He had patiently answered long lists of questions for me over numerous breakfast meetings as I worked toward the Simplex IPO. Simplex and Cadence have been circling around each other ever since we went public in 2001, and [when the acquisition took place], it was a natural development.”

She denies the suggestion that she was the critical piece of IP that Cadence was looking for when they acquired Simplex. “I'm a natural change agent, but it's the Simplex technology that Cadence wanted - the modeling, extraction, and verification products and the X Architecture initiative.”

But she adds, again laughing, “I was the icing on the cake.” Herscher is also quick to point out that Cadence also added distinguished technologists Aki Fujimura and Steve Teig to the executive team by way of the Simplex acquisition. And she notes that all Simplex products continue to be supported and sold by Cadence.

Life at Cadence

Herscher says she brings “lots of energy to the strategic game we're playing. I've had a hand in overhauling Marketing and opening up communications. I'm a complementary fit at Cadence and believe I've helped Ray articulate the vision for the company - that helps all employees. There are great people here and it's been a dream to work with them.”

Herscher says that even more acquisitions can be anticipated within EDA. [This week alone, Synopsys has acquired Numerical Technologies and Cadence has acquired Celestry.] But she says EDA companies still need to work at collaboration. “No company is an island. As far as the customers are concerned, however, they're relieved to deal with a reduced number of vendors.”

Asked what has surprised her the most about being part of Cadence, she says, “I just didn't expect it to be so much fun! This is a high-energy company with a culture that says there's nothing that can't be done. It's a company with a willingness to absorb change at a rate that really accommodates innovation.”

Hersher says Cadence CEO and President Ray Bingham is building a “Dream Team” at Cadence with the senior executives he has on board. She says Bingham is proving that Cadence can react to change and continue to move forward.

What has changed for her since coming on board at Cadence? She's quick to answer: “I sleep at night! When you're the CEO of a small company, you don't sleep at night. You're always worried that something will happen to kill your company. But a big company like Cadence is like a super tanker, not a speed boat. People here, like [Executive Vice President] Lavi Lev, are creating innovation through start-ups within Cadence, providing motivation and momentum for in-house efforts. We've had [technical] breakthroughs without giving up [business] stability - look, we grew 5% in 2002. Cadence has made massive investments in R&D and, of course, we always hope for ROI, but you've got to be realistic about high-tech.”

Clearly, Herscher does not accept the folk wisdom that innovation can only happen in small companies: “Innovation's a creative process. We don't care where innovation comes from. It can come from big companies, from small companies, or from customers. The advantage of a big company is that you can acquire innovation. A small company's only source of innovation is their own.”

Meanwhile, Herscher says the move to Cadence has meant that her life has changed “in every way, and not at all. I had 250 people reporting to me at Simplex and I have 900 people reporting to me here at Cadence. But I have more senior executives working for me here, so I've got more ability to delegate. Either way, at Simplex or Cadence, my job is still to look out for the good of the whole company. I just returned from Wall Street where I had to explain, justify, and promote the whole company.”

Parent & Advocate

Senior executive or no, Herscher faces inevitable questions about how she balances family and career. She says she tries to explain absolutely everything to her children - a school-aged son and a daughter. “I was gone an entire month in 2001 [promoting] the Simplex IPO. I told them it was like an orange tree. I needed to sell all the oranges that were going to be harvested in order to buy more fertilizer for the tree, and that the investors were selling the fertilizer. The children knew I would have to be gone and they managed with the help of my husband.”

She says her kids are fully versed in the mysteries of the quarter-end close. In fact, 5 quarters ago, her son broke his arm on the last day of the quarter. She got the call and rushed to his school. When she came into the school office, he said, “I can't believe you came! It's the last day of the quarter!” Two quarters later, he had another playground injury - one day short of the close - and when she went to the school, he said, “At least this time, I didn't do it on the very last day of the quarter!”

Herscher says that in some ways, children always have to bear up when there's a senior executive in a household. However, they also learn that they can pursue their dreams: “Children see what you do, not what you say. I'm ambitious and I would be lying to my children if I didn't tell them as much.”

She adds, “In my generation, we're all much better educated. Men and women are more sensitive to the price a family pays if one parent isn't committed to raising the children. It requires balance and understanding in all things. The world we're moving to, is a place where one parent has to put the children first, but it doesn't matter which gender parent it is. Somebody's got to do it and people are recognizing that.”

“People make their choices. I was always inspired by Chi-Foon [Chan] at Synopsys. No matter where he was in the world during the workweek, he made sure to spend every Saturday with his children. People who let parenthood in, are better executives.”

Herscher is an out-spoken advocate for her gender, but insists that success depends on the mindset of the aspiring woman: “There's no glass ceiling if you're good at what you do. If you're willing to work harder, be better, be tougher - initially you may be underestimated and patronized, but if you're relentless and smart, it doesn't take long for men to figure that out.” And she says, with a laugh, “Don't forget - we're the stronger gender!”

Herscher says that working with male colleagues requires the same level of cross-cultural sensitivity that one brings to the table when negotiating with business associates from Europe or Japan. She says it's always a matter of understanding how to communicate effectively across gender or cultural barriers. She recommends the book, You Just Don't Understand, Women and Men in Conversation by Dr. Deborah Tannen, a linguist who articulates the differences in communication styles between men and women.

Herscher cites Tannen's book and studies of children, which reveal the contrasts between men communicating with other men in a group versus women communicating with other women in a group: “Men are concentrating on establishing hierarchy and stature. Women are looking for connection and sameness. This behavior is hard-wired in.” Herscher has concluded that to be successful in management, a woman needs to understand and respect these differences, and match her communication style to her audience.

Nonetheless, Herscher acknowledges there will always be obstacles, overt or otherwise, for anyone who's different. But she also insists, “You don't have to accept anyone's prejudices or under-estimation. You don't have to let it get to you. Go for it - do anything you want to do! Don't believe you can't do anything - black, white, green, yellow, male, female - it doesn't matter. You can overcome the negative messaging sent your way.”

Living for the moment

But, most importantly, you've got to live in the present, Herscher says. Her favorite quote, always close at hand, is from English author Storm Jameson: “The past is gone beyond prayer, and every minute you spend in the vain effort to anticipate the future is a moment lost. There is only one world, the world pressing upon you at this minute - here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what it is - a miracle and unrepeatable.”

Herscher says, ultimately, she has one overarching purpose in her life - to change the role of women in society. She says she works to fill that purpose by serving as a role model, rather than through the education system: “My skills are better suited to that.” She adds that the lack of female representation in the executive boardroom is not something that can be immediately solved. “We need to get to girls before they're 15 to convince them of their worth.”

So it turns out that Penny Herscher's being a woman is not a non-issue in her life or in the leadership role she plays at Cadence. This is a highly successful woman who has worked harder, been better, tougher, ever relentless, and consistently willing to take on more to succeed in the business of technology.

If a tough guy who's also a woman is a formidable competitor, then that's Herscher - a damn formidable competitor. Lucky Cadence!

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posted May 30, 2006

Peggy Aycinena owns and operates EDA Confidential. She can be reached at peggy@aycinena.com

Copyright (c) 2006, Peggy Aycinena. All rights reserved.