CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, May 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — lowRISC C.I.C., the open-source silicon engineering organisation and host of the OpenTitan® project (the world’s first commercial grade open-source silicon root-of-trust), today announced the appointment of Andrew Wallace as the new Chair of its Board of Directors. Andrew succeeds Sir Andy Hopper, who is stepping down after several years of distinguished service as independent Chair.
Under Sir Andy Hopper’s leadership, lowRISC® experienced a period of remarkable growth, solidifying its position as a global leader in collaborative, open-source silicon engineering, culminating in the announcement that new Chromebooks are now shipping with OpenTitan and the launch of the COSMIC project delivering an open-source CHERI Secure Enclave. The organisation extends its deepest gratitude to Sir Andy for his exceptional guidance, strategic vision, and steadfast commitment to advancing the transparent, secure silicon ecosystem. His tenure saw the successful commercial delivery of the OpenTitan project and the establishment of a robust coalition of enterprise and academic partners.
“Sir Andy’s contributions to lowRISC cannot be overstated. His wealth of experience and steady leadership have been instrumental in getting us to where we are today,” said Javier Orensanz Martinez, CEO of lowRISC. “As we enter our next phase of growth and commercial adoption, we are thrilled to welcome Andrew Wallace as our new Chair. Andrew brings a phenomenal track record of scaling deep-tech organizations and driving global commercial strategy, making him the ideal leader to guide our board forward.”
Welcoming Andrew Wallace
Andrew Wallace brings over 35 years of executive experience across the enterprise IT, electronics, telecommunications, and photonics sectors. With a strong focus on addressing emerging markets and deep-tech innovation, he has held numerous global commercial, marketing, and operational roles ranging from agile startups to billion-euro enterprises.
After larger high-growth roles, Andrew’s most recent executive role was as CEO of Pyreos through its growth and sale to Broadcom. He has recently held several non-executive roles across the deep-tech and startup landscape, particularly in photonic quantum computing and post-quantum cryptography (PQC). His extensive global leadership experience positions him perfectly to help lowRISC navigate the complexities of the global semiconductor industry.
“I am delighted to join lowRISC as Chair during such a pivotal time for the semiconductor and hardware security industries,” said Andrew Wallace. “With the drive of its founders and of Sir Andy, the lowRISC team has established open-source silicon in core high volume security applications. Now several new major opportunities are open to us. The open-source silicon model that lowRISC is championing is fundamentally changing how the industry builds secure, transparent silicon, increasing quality and engineering efficiency across the industry. I look forward to working with the board, the executive team, and our growing ecosystem of partners to accelerate our impact and scale our mission globally.”
To learn more about lowRISC and its open-source engineering initiatives, visit http://www.lowrisc.org.
About lowRISC
Founded in 2014 at the University of Cambridge, lowRISC is a not-for-profit company that provides a neutral home for collaborative engineering to develop and maintain open-source silicon designs and tools for the long term. The lowRISC structure is designed to host, manage, and govern open-source projects, including the OpenTitan Root of Trust, ensuring their long-term health, security, and commercial viability.
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