Primary Job Title President Primary Organization TechnoVision
Gender Male
Dr. Makimoto was a Corporate Advisor of Sony Corporation in charge of semiconductor technology until 2005. Since retiring from Sony, he is directing his own consulting office, TechnoVision, as President. He received his BS/Applied Physics from the University of Tokyo in 1959, MS/EE from Stanford University in 1966, and Ph.D. from the
University of Tokyo in 1971. He was nominated an IEEE Fellow in 1997.
From 1959 to 2000, he was with Hitachi Ltd. and assumed various positions including Senior Executive Managing Director in 1997 and Corporate Chief Technologist in 1998. He joined Sony as Corporate Senior Executive Vice President in 2000 and assumed the position of Corporate Advisor in 2001. In the late 1980s, he discovered the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry which alternates directions between customization and standardization. This cycle was later named "Makimoto's Wave" by the Electronics Weekly in UK in 1991. He was given the Bellwether Award by Semico Research in 2003 for his vision, leadership, and outstanding contributions to the semiconductor industry, and the SEMI Recognition Award at 2004 ITPC.
He was on the International Advisory Panel of National Science and Technology Board of Singapore (99-00), the Chairman of Japan Institute of Electronics Packaging (03-05), a Member of the Industry Advisory Board of UC/Berkeley (EE/CS) (03-06), on the Board of Directors of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (99-08), and on the Board of Directors of Elpida Memory (06-10). He is currently Chairman of PDF Solutions Japan, Senior Advisor of Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp., Advisor to Inphi Corp., and Chairman of the Society of Semiconductor Industry Seniors. He wrote "Living with the Chip" in 1995 and "Digital Nomad" in 1997 jointly with David Manners.
