AMD has named Rory Read, the president and COO of Lenovo, as its new CEO, replacing Dirk Meyer, who resigned in January.
Eight months
after Dirk Meyer resigned as CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, the world's
second-largest chip maker has found a replacement from the executive ranks of
PC vendor Lenovo.
AMD on Aug. 25
announced that Rory Read is the company's new president and CEO. Read most
recently was president and COO of Lenovo, and prior to that had spent 23 years
with IBM. Read also will be on the company's board of directors.
AMD Board
Chairman Bruce Claflin noted Read's record of driving profit growth during his
time with Lenovo as a key asset that he brings to the chip vendor.
"He is
ideally suited to accelerate AMD's evolution into the world's leading
semiconductor design company," Claflin said in a statement. "As president and
COO of Lenovo, he helped take the company into dynamic new markets while
growing market share and expanding profitability. His sound strategic thinking
and natural customer orientation will help amplify the voice of the customer
inside AMD."
According to
AMD, Read was in charge of Lenovo's day-to-day operations worldwide, including
pushing forward the company's growth strategy. He was responsible for double-digit
revenue growth and market-share gains. He had been president and COO at Lenovo
for the past two years.
"I'm very
pleased to be joining AMD at this important time in its history," Read said in
a statement. "AMD is a true innovator and is uniquely positioned to lead the
industry forward, delivering the next big thing, both within the PC ecosystem
and beyond. AMD has strong momentum and the opportunity to continue profitably
gaining share based on its highly differentiated products, solid financial
foundation, and passionate and committed employees."
Read's
appointment brings stability to AMD as it pushes forward its Fusion strategy.
AMD's Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs) offer the graphics chip and
CPU on the same piece of silicon, a move designed to improve the performance
and energy efficiency of the chips. AMD rolled out the first of its Fusion
processors at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in January.
At the same
time, rival Intel unveiled its "Sandy Bridge" architecture, which also
integrates the graphics and compute capabilities onto a single die.
AMD's new
chips received good publicity, which made Meyer's resignation days later even
more surprising. Meyer resigned after a disagreement with the board about the
direction of the company. Board members reportedly believed AMD was missing an
opportunity in the tablet and smartphone markets. They also were unhappy with
AMD's recent performance in the server space.
Thomas
Seifert, senior vice president and CFO, has been the company's interim CEO
since Meyer left, but said he had no interest in taking the job permanently.
Over the past few months, a number of high-profile names-including former
Intel executive and current EMC COO Pat Gelsinger; Mark Hurd, ex-CEO at
Hewlett-Packard and current Oracle president; and Tim Cook, at the time Apple's
COO and now the CEO of the company-were floated as people approached by AMD
about the job, but nothing materialized.
Analysts said
Seifert had done a good job running the company and making decisions on its
future; for example, he said AMD saw a good opportunity in tablets but would
not enter the smartphone space, at least not yet-but that the long search for
Meyer's permanent replacement was becoming a drag on the company. AMD's stock
price over the year reportedly has fallen as much as 22 percent.
AMD has seen
its share of the global chip market grow over the
past year, climbing to 19.4 percent in the second quarter, according to Mercury
Research. It had been 17.8 percent during the same period in 2010. Intel
continues to dominate the space, with a 79.9 percent market share.
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