Former Qualcomm chair and current XCOM Labs executive Paul Jacobs (pictured) was named as one of a number of new board members at chip design company Arm, as it continued preparations for a public listing.

Industry veteran Jacobs was named alongside Rosemary Schooler, an executive Arm stated had most recently served as corporate VP and GM of data centre and AI sales with Intel.

Arm CEO Rene Haas explained Jacobs and Schooler each bring “unique insights and depth of experience” which will be crucial for the company “at such a pivotal moment in our journey”.

Jacobs cited his relationship with Arm during his tenure with Qualcomm, noting the increasingly pervasive nature of computing “creates new opportunities to build upon Arm’s market-leading position”.

The executive formed XCOM Labs with two former Qualcomm colleagues in 2018, shortly after being ousted as the US chip maker’s chairman. He later led moves to acquire the company, though ultimately abandoned the plan.

In addition to his role with the start-up, Arm stated Jacobs also serves as director of file-hosting app Dropbox, non-profit organisation FIRST and smart healthcare company Heal.

Schooler was likewise hailed for bringing key knowledge to the Arm boardroom, including work on network function virtualisation and data plane development, during a 33-year career with Intel.