By Haykaz Baghian and Narine Khachatrian
ArmeniaWeek business reporters
The number of engineers is expected to increase by 30 percent by the end of the year at the Armenian subsidiary of the US-founded Heuristic Physics Laboratories technologies.
According to Andrew Hovhannisian, managing director of HPL’s Armenia operations, the growth of engineering staff to 200 is a result of the increase in orders to the parent company.
At the beginning of this month, HPL signed a major multi-year volume purchase agreement with a leading integrated circuit manufacturer, STMicroelectronics. HPL will provide its software product to STMicroelectronics’ labs in Europe, Asia, and the US.
Founded in 1989 in San Jose, California by David Lepejian, the company is a leading provider of yield-optimization software that enables semiconductor companies to enhance the efficiency of the semiconductor production process. HPL’s products are installed at semiconductor design, fabrication, and test facilities worldwide.
HPL placed third on a list of fastest growing Silicon Valley companies that grew revenues and turned a profit in 2001. The “Silicon Valley 2001 Fastest 50 by Sales Growth” list, compiled annually by the San Jose Mercury News, is regarded as a leading indicator for the fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley.
In 2001, despite the general recession worries, HPL made a successful Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ, with its stock symbol named after the company in Armenia – “HPLA”.
“The company was the first in the US to state in its prospectus the fact that most of its source codes were developed in Armenia”, said Hovhannisian (pictured above).
It is early to speak about a correlation between NASDAQ and ArmEx in Armenia where the stock market is just forming. But success can already be measured by the quantity and quality of cars in front of HPLA’s office on Komitas street.
The owners are the young men and women of HPLA (average age 28) whose salaries allow them not only to drive nice cars, but to support five or six relatives.
And they have reached a level of comfort in Armenia after first having turned down possibilities to go to IT jobs in the States.
Given the choice with HPLA, 150 first-class programmers decided in favor of Armenia.
All of them, like 29-year old Anri Lazarian (pictured left), passed stiff competition to join HPLA.
Lazarian, a graduate of the cybernetics department of the Polytechnic Institute, is head of HPLA’s program management department, where he oversees eight employees.
“HPL’s management is confident there are world-class programmers in Armenia and particularly thanks to them the company became a world leader,” Hovhannisian says. “There has been no other such high quality yield-optimization software.”
Among HPL’s clients are the biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world: Advanced Micro Devices, Dominion Semiconductor, FASL, Fujitsu, Microelectronics, LSI Logic, STMicroelectronics, Silicon Storage Technology, Teradyne and Toshiba.
Recently the parent company made an unprecedented move, establishing in Armenia part of its global customer support operations.
HPL made a $1 million investment in its Armenian subsidiary, which it first started in 1995.
Following its example, more than 50 foreign IT firms, mostly from the US have opened Armenian offices. Officials estimate that the IT sector’s output jumped by 30 percent last year, exceeding $50 million. Some 4,000 are employed in IT jobs nation-wide.
“Our products are direct investments of one’s brain into a software code or service,” Hovhannisian says. “Accordingly, we need our people to come to work in good spirit and full of positive creative energy – and not preoccupied by sad thoughts related to problems common to all Armenian citizens.”
Hovhannisian says he hopes to see the success of his profession repeated in other forms of Armenian life.
“Not everyone must be a programmer to enjoy a better life,” he says. “Every shoemaker or carpenter or a small private farmer can and has a right to live better. The government should make every effort to prevent a ‘digital divide’.”
Hovhannisian says HPLA will double its technical staff in Armenia over the next two to three years.
“I know the process is difficult but I am also seeing lots of positive changes. The mere existence of our company here is a huge change and clear evidence that Armenia has radically changed.”
Photos by Karen Minasian
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