Ajei Gopal

Ajei Gopal has served as our Chief Executive Officer Designate and a member of our board of directors since September 2025. Ajei has over 35 years of proven experience leading global technology companies at scale, most recently serving as the President and CEO of Ansys from 2017 to 2025. Under Ajei’s leadership, Ansys approximately tripled revenue and quadrupled market value, and became the global leader in engineering simulation–joining the ranks of the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100, and earning international recognition as a top employer. Ajei’s tenure at Ansys culminated in leading the company through its $35 billion acquisition by Synopsys in July 2025, after which he was appointed to Synopsys's board of directors. Ajei previously served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Ansys in 2016, and as a member of its board of directors from 2011 until its acquisition in July 2025.

Prior to Ansys, Ajei served as an operating partner at Silver Lake from 2013 to 2016, which included a secondment as interim President and Chief Operating Officer at Symantec in 2016. Ajei was also Senior Vice President and General Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company from 2011 until 2013, Executive Vice President and General Manager at CA Technologies from 2006 until 2011, and Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Symantec from 2004 to 2006. Prior to Symantec, Ajei served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of ReefEdge Networks, a company he cofounded in 2000. His earlier career included various roles at IBM Research and later in IBM's Software Group from 1991 to 2000, and he began his professional journey at Bell Communications Research in 1984.

Ajei currently serves on the board of directors of Fiserv and Synopsys and on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. Besides Ansys, he previously served on the board of directors of Citrix Systems.

Ajei holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University and a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, which named him a distinguished alumnus. He holds 23 U.S. patents.