Ben Jackson - founder

Ben has always been fascinated by how things work. One summer, after his parents’ house was burgled, a new alarm system was installed; the old system was to be thrown out, but Ben salvaged it. He then spent the rest of the school holidays at a bench with a soldering iron, battery and multi-meter in hand investigating how the old system worked and then used its parts to make new inventions. All through secondary school he studied electronics and invented many devices including several systems for measuring the speed of a skier and also an ‘automated bonfire lighting system’! 

After graduating from the University of Bristol in the UK with a first-class masters in Electronic Engineering Ben relocated to France and joined International Rectifier's graduate rotation program in 2007. After completing projects in Integrated Circuit design, M&A and Intellectual Property he joined the company’s newly formed automotive products business unit in Los Angeles as the product manger responsible for MOSFETs in late 2008.  

Over a 2 year period Ben worked with a cross-functional team to establish and launch a new automotive MOSFET portfolio, resulting in over 200 new products released to the market and revenues that grew by 40% in a 2 year period.  In 2011 with the MOSFET business well established, mainly driven by traditional automotive applications, Ben formed a small team to run the marketing and applications of the MOSFET product line. In the meantime, he started to focus more of his time on IGBTs.  Although a very small product line, the company had high hopes for IGBTs with the emergence of many hybrid and electric cars. Working with teams in sales, application engineering, product development and operations a limited number of lead customers were identified, and a small but focused portfolio of products was brought to the market.  Close collaboration both internally and with the lead customers saw many technical and commercial challenges overcome in these new and emerging electric car applications.  This work resulted in International Rectifier becoming the leading supplier of IGBTs into electric vehicles in both the main inverter and PTC heater applications, along with successes in other auxiliary applications such as air conditioning.  Business revenues grew from low hundred thousand dollars a year to the mid double-digit millions by 2014.  

Notably the team effort that Ben drove led IR to move from being an outsider in automotive IGBTs, to becoming the main IGBT supplier to the world’s leading electric car company.

In 2015 after IR was acquired by Infineon Technologies Ben was asked to relocate to Munich to head the combined product marketing team of Infineon’s discrete and bare die IGBTs for automotive applications. At Infineon Ben had the possibility to learn the very different but highly effective way of working of this former competitor as well developing the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of automotive IGBTs. In 2018 he moved on to head the product marketing for Infineon’s industry leading automotive module product line and undertook activities to refresh the roadmap and set the product line up for substantial revenue growth. By 2019, seven of the top ten selling EVs globally were using power semiconductor solutions that Ben and his teams at both IR and Infineon had brought to the market over an 8 year period. 

In 2019 Ben returned home to the UK and in early 2020 after 12 years in the semiconductor industry he established BDJ Group Limited. The practice aims to be the world’s leading semiconductor product marketing and product management consultancy, with a specialist knowledge in power semiconductors for the hybrid and electric vehicle markets.   

In his spare time Ben enjoys sailing, skiing and singing. He has a passion for choral music, photography and jet engines. He has a firm belief that success often comes out of the most challenging circumstances. 

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