Meyers will report to Bernie Aronson, who will retain his CEO title for now, but plans to relinquish it sometime over the next year.

Aronson and Meyers were not immediately available for comment.

"The announcement today regarding Gary Meyers' promotion to president and COO of Synplicity is consistent with the company's succession plan for current CEO, Bernie Aronson," a company spokesman said. "Over the next year, the company's expectations are to have Mr. Meyers continue to assume more corporate-wide responsibilities, eventually leading to the role of president and CEO."

The spokesman said Aronson, the 73-year-old EDA veteran, is turning over more responsibilities to Meyers and is not retiring.

In assuming his new posts, Meyers will continue to oversee worldwide sales. He will also be responsible for Synplicity's marketing and engineering functions. Meyers is a 17-year veteran of of the EDA and semiconductor industries. He has served as vice president of worldwide sales for Synplicity for nearly five years. Prior to joining Synplicity, Meyers served in various management roles at LSI Logic, including director of marketing and major accounts sales manager. Meyers began his career as an ASIC designer at TRW (now Northrop Grumman) in Redondo Beach, Calif. He holds an MBA from UCLA and a BSEE from the University of Maryland.