Duy–Loan Le

Emigrated from Vietnam as a refugee at 12, Duy-Loan g r a d u a te d fr o m high school as valedictorian at 16 and obtained her BSEE at 19, Magna Cum Laude, from Cockrell College of Engineering at the University of Texas in Austin (UT). Duy-Loan holds an MBA degree from Bauer College at the University of Houston. She started her career at Texas Instruments (TI) still a teenager and two decades later became the first Asian American and the only female elected to the highest title Senior Fellow in TI’s 95 year- history. Duy-Loan led the development and mass production of TI’s $2 billion memory business with JV partners. She oversaw global R&D, worldwide manufacturing operation, and high volume production for TI’s $5 billion Application Specific Product (ASP) business division.

Duy-Loan retired from TI after 35 years and currently serves on the board of directors at Cirrus Logic, Wolfspeed, Atomera and Brainchip. She was elected to her first public board in 2002 and previously served as chairs of Nomination & Governance committee and compensation committee for both National Instruments and Ballard Power Systems. She had served on multiple private and start-ups companies. In 2021, the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) named her to “NACD Directorship 100”, a recognition reserved for the most influential directors and leaders in the corporate governance community. In 2019, she was recognized as “Most Influential Corporate Board Directors”.

Duy-Loan oversaw the development of the world’s fastest Digital Signal Processor per 2004 Guinness World Records and holds 24 patents. She was inducted into “Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame” in 2001 and became the first engineer inducted into “Asian Hall of Fame” in 2017, a recognition previously reserved for the media, entertainment and sport industry. She was recognized as Women on the Move, Women of Vision, National Technologist of the Year, TimesPeople, Asian Engineer of the Year, Outstanding Young Texas Ex from UT, and numerous other accolades for her business leadership and civic vision. In 2006, Duy-Loan received the prestigious Golden Torch Award with Congressional Recognition and in 2008 The Humanitarian Award from the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation, both recognizing her selfless service to the global community.

Duy-Loan served on the founding board of four non-profit organizations over the last 26yrs with focus on education and STEM. She continues to stay actively engaged with Mona Foundation and Sunflower Mission to this date and as honorary member of the board for Science National Honor Society. She served on the board of Cockrell College of Engineering at The University of Texas in Austin and Bauer College of Business at The University of Houston for two decades. Duy-Loan was appointed to Commission 125 by President Larry Faulkner of The University of Texas in Austin. Duy-Loan is a frequently invited speaker, including at West Point, universities and Fortune 500 companies.