How the Del Prados got into the semiconductor business

The origins of Arthur del Prado’s career – and thus ASM International’s roots – reside in a burgeoning Silicon Valley. Like many other Dutch citizens emigrating abroad since the late 1940s, young Arthur sought his fortunes in the New World. The bright young man joined the prestigious Harvard Business School but he didn’t earn a degree. Joined by his wife, he was eager to make his fortune in the United States and if Harvard didn’t prove to be his way to move ahead, he would find another way.

After arriving in Northern California, on the other side of the American continent, Del Prado was soon struck by the hustle and bustle there in the late 1950s. This triggered his entrepreneurial spirit. Although the start-up scene would mature in Silicon Valley only gradually, over the following decades, the innovative, optimistic and enthusiastic mentality could be felt already. On his way to San Francisco, while hanging out in the Bay Area, Del Prado crossed paths with an individual named Dean Knapic in the fall of 1957. This encounter was surely an unexpected but defining moment in his life and, subsequently, in the history of ASMI.