Arthur del Prado

Arthur Hendrik del Prado (November 17, 1931 – September 9, 2016) was a Dutch entrepreneur, and the founder of ASM International (company), ASML Holding, and ASM Pacific Technology. He also laid the foundations of other Semiconductor device fabrication equipment companies like Besi and Mapper Lithography. In 2008 he retired as Chief executive officer of ASM International, and as Chairperson of ASM Pacific Technology in 2016.
==Early life==
Del Prado was born on November 17, 1931 in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, the former Dutch Indies (now Jakarta) as the second child of a maritime officer of the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij|‘Royal Packet Navigation Company’. The Del Prado family name originated from History of the Jews in Suriname.
 
In 1942, during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, like all Dutch citizens, Del Prado was interned together with his mother and older sister in Tjideng, Batavia. In 1944, all Dutch boys above age 10 were moved to adult camps. Arthur, 12 years old, was separated from his family and sent to a mixed camp for prisoners of war and internments List of Japanese-run internment camps during World War II. During the Bersiap following the capitulation of the Japanese in August 1945, his parents signed Arthur as Cabin boy on MS Oranje for the first repatriation journey after the war to the Netherlands, where he arrived in January 1946. After reunion, he and his family moved to Naarden, the Netherlands.
==Education==
Del Prado graduated in chemistry at the Hogere Textielschool Enschede (now Saxion University of Applied Sciences), while serving as chairman of a local student society. After temporarily studying economics at the University of Amsterdam, he migrated to the United States in 1956. In 1957, he started at Harvard Business School, which he did not finish.
==Career==
===Knapic Electro-Physics===
After quitting Harvard Business School, Del Prado and his wife traveled throughout in the United States, ending up in Silicon Valley, late 1957. Here he got hired by Knapic Electro-Physics, a merchant manufacturer of Monocrystalline silicon. This company was founded by Dean Dinko Knapic (1921-1993), who had been responsible for manufacturing at Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory and left that firm simultaneously with the ‘Traitorous eight’. From June 1958 until February 1964, in the capacity of European Marketing Manager, Del Prado sold Knapic Electro-Physics crystals to European customers.
===Others===
Del Prado had been board member of Oldelft, Canon Production Printing, Breevast N.V., Dutch-Japanese trading cooperation Dujat, Dutch public foundation Centers for Microelectronics and European public-private industrial research consortia Eureka (organization) and MEDEA. From 2000 onwards, Del Prado became an investor and board member in a Dutch start-up in Electron-beam lithography called Mapper Lithography. Mapper Lithography was acquired by ASML Holding in 2019. In ASM spin-off Levitech B.V., he was an investor and board member.
==Personal life==
From the 1960s until his death, Arthur del Prado lived in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. He had three children. His hobbies were amongst others tennis, flying his own airplane, and sailing his own yacht called Skipper.
Category:People from Jakarta
Category:1931 births
Category:2016 deaths