James Truchard, CEO and co-founder of National Instruments and known to many as Dr. T, is set to retire in January, the test and measurement company announced in a statement. Truchard will be replaced by current COO and CFO Alex Davern.
Truchard has been NI’s CEO since founding the company in 1976 with fellow University of Texas at Austin researchers. Truchard is set to remain with the company as chairman of the board.
“It is the right time for me to retire as CEO,” said Truchard said in a statement. “I have worked with Alex Davern for more than 20 years. He is an exceptional leader and business strategist, with a demonstrated track record of success. I have complete confidence in Alex and the rest of the senior leadership team at NI to continue delivering on our consistent track record of innovation, growth and profitability.”
The 22nd annual NIWeek was recently held in Austin, Texas, with attendance from more than 3,200 engineers. Truchard took to the stage in NI’s opening keynote to introduce new tools for developing massive multiple-input/multiple-output systems, the underpinnings of “5G” systems and time-sensitive networking, as well as its second-generation vector signal transceiver.
“It has always been my goal for NI to be a company built to last,” Truchard said. “Over the last decade, in the face of a weak industrial economy, I have focused my efforts on helping to ensure that we were making the long-term strategic investments necessary to set NI up for future growth. I believe these major platform investments, in key areas like PXI modular instrumentation, RF measurements, CompactRIO, and our entire software platform, will continue providing NI with disruptive platform capabilities needed to expand our long-term market opportunity. Given our significant progress, much of which was showcased at NIWeek earlier this month, I believe NI is well-positioned for the coming decade.”
Here is Davern undergoing what is likely the most technically advanced ALS Ice Bucket Challenge ever accepted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYif3kaj1Ak
“As a company built to last, Dr. Truchard has built an extremely capable senior leadership team over the years, and I am honored and excited to lead NI into its next phase of growth and profitability,” said Davern. “Our differentiated platform and ecosystem coupled with our strong business model, give us the opportunity to be the preeminent company in test, measurement and control.”
Davern has served as COO of NI since 2010, and CFO since 1997. NI notes Davern and the rest of the senior management team have more than 100 years of experience at NI. The company said it will start the process of looking for a new CFO and expects to complete the process by the end of the year.
