Imagination Technologies loses chief of staff after Chinese ownership row

Credit: HANNAH MCKAY/Reuters

Imagination Technologies has lost a fourth executive in less than a year, amid an overhaul of the British chip designer’s leadership team in the wake of a bitter boardroom row. 

Woz Ahmed has stepped down from his role as Imagination’s chief strategy officer and chief of staff, saying in a post on LinkedIn that he had decided that "now is a good time to leave". 

His departure comes amid a slew of executive changes at the company, starting last April when boss Ron Black left the company in the wake of claims its Beijing backers were plotting to appoint representatives to its board.

Since then, John Rayfield has left the chief technical officer post, whilst LinkedIn posts suggest David McBrien has also stepped down as chief revenue officer.

The company has made a series of new appointments to the board, most notably hiring Simon Beresford-Wylie as a chief executive last October. Former Arm executive Tim Whitfield joined as its chief of engineering in December, and Broadcom’s Tim Mamtora as its chief innovation officer in February.

Mr Ahmed had worked at Imagination between 2004 and 2016 as a vice president of ventures and corporate projects, and returned in 2018 in a move he said was "to help the firm fly through turbulence".  He said he had landed the company "in a better place".

Imagination is still, however, facing scrutiny over the dispute last year, which centred around the main backers of Canyon Bridge, a private equity firm which bought the company in 2017 for around £550m. Its main shareholders are China Reform, a state-backed entity which had attempted to stage a coup of Imagination’s board by appointing its own representatives. 

It later U-turned on the move following an outpouring of concern among senior MPs over the power this would give Beijing over the British chip designer.

Its technology is used in Apple and Samsung products, but it also has developed systems which check if that technology works — something MPs cautioned could be used to find so-called "back doors" or vulnerabilities in networks. The row resulted in former executives being dragged before MPs in an inquiry over foreign asset stripping. 

Earlier this year, the Telegraph revealed that Mr Black was suing Imagination for unfair dismissal.

Imagination declined to comment.