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Advanced Micro Devices is continuing to remake its executive lineup, even as it looks for a permanent CEO to replace the departed Dirk Meyer.
The chip maker announced March 24 that Ronaldo Miranda, a former executive with Samsung, will be AMD’s vice president and general manager of the Latin America region. Miranda, who had been Samsung’s vice president for IT in Brazil before coming to AMD and earlier in his career had spent 10 years with larger rival Intel, will oversee AMD’s operations in Brazil, Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean region.
He is replacing Hans Erickson, who now is vice president of AMD’s Worldwide Business group.
Miranda’s appointment comes three days after AMD announced the hiring of Mike Wolfe as the company’s CIO. Wolfe, a 30-year veteran in the IT industry, came over from Hewlett-Packard, where he spent five years as vice president of IT for product development engineering.
“Mike has effectively led IT transformations constantly focusing on reducing operating costs and significantly improving business innovation,” Thomas Seifert, AMD’s senior vice president, CFO and interim CEO, said in a statement when announcing Wolfe’s hiring. “His considerable talent and experience will help AMD to continue strengthening our IT infrastructure and streamline our business based on our own products and platforms.”
AMD continues to shuffle its executive ranks in the wake of Meyer’s resignation in January following a disagreement with the company’s board of directors over the direction of the company. Meyer had spent two years running AMD, which is a distant No. 2 in the worldwide processor market, which is dominated by Intel. According to analyst accounts, AMD has less than 19 percent of the market; Intel more than 80 percent.
Meyer’s resignation came as a surprise after what some analysts saw as a strong showing by AMD at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, particularly in rolling out the first of its Fusion APUs (accelerated processing units). However, reports emerged that said that some board members felt AMD was not being aggressive enough in such areas as the server market, where the company has lost share in recent years, and the burgeoning tablet PC space.
Siefert was named interim CEO, and then immediately took his name out of contention for the permanent CEO job.
A month after Meyer’s departure, AMD announced two more executives were leaving the company. Robert Rivet, AMD’s chief operations and administrative officer, and Marty Seyer, senior vice president of corporate strategy and the company face for many of its products, both resigned, according to a statement put out by AMD.
“Both are leaving to pursue new opportunities and are expected to remain through a brief interim period to help ensure seamless transitions,” AMD spokesperson Michael Silverman said in an email at the time.
Rivet’s responsibilities were given to John Docherty, senior vice president of manufacturing operations, who is in charge of all aspects of AMD’s manufacturing process. Harry Wolin, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for AMD, will oversee the company’s corporate strategy unit, the company said.