AMD Appoints Dr. Lisa Su as Chief Executive Officer
Replacing Rory Read, former Chief Operating Officer Dr. Lisa Su is now appointed as AMD’s Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Su is an engineer with extensive semi-conductor experience so it is an interesting move on AMD’s part and can be viewed as a step forward in advancing their technology once again after Read’s appointment in 2011 whose primary focus was stabilizing finances for the company with some corporate restructuring and job reductions. Rory Read will stay on with AMD in an advisory capacity until the end of the year.
Dr. Su joined AMD in 2012 and was most recently COO responsible for integrating AMD’s business units, sales, global operations and infrastructure enablement teams into a single market-facing organization responsible for all aspects of product strategy, product execution, sales and operations. She has received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate at MIT. Dr. Su has also published more than 40 technical articles and was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) in 2009. Dr. Su was named “2014 Executive of the Year” at the EETimes and EDN 2014 ACE Awards and was honored in MIT Technology Review’s Top 100 Young Innovators in 2002.
The full official press release from AMD is available below:
SUNNYVALE, CA — 10/08/14 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that its board of directors has appointed Dr. Lisa Su as president and chief executive officer and member of the board of directors, effective immediately. Dr. Su, 44, succeeds Rory Read, 52, who has stepped down as president and chief executive officer, and member of the board of directors, as part of a transition plan. Read will support the transition in an advisory role, remaining with the company through the end of 2014.
“Leadership succession planning has been a joint effort between Rory and the board and we felt that Lisa’s expertise and proven leadership in the global semiconductor industry make this an ideal time for her to lead the company,” said Bruce Claflin, chairman of AMD’s board of directors. “The board looks forward to continuing to work with Lisa and the rest of the senior management team to build on the company’s momentum. I would also like to thank Rory for his many accomplishments and contributions positioning AMD for long-term success by helping to create a strong foundation and clear path to re-establish the company’s growth and profitability.”
Commenting on her appointment, Dr. Su said, “I am deeply honored to have this opportunity to lead AMD during this important time of transformation. Our world-class technology assets combined with the incredible talent and passion of the AMD team provide us with a unique opportunity to shape the future of computing. I look forward to expanding on the strong foundation we have built under Rory’s leadership as we develop industry-leading technologies and products for a diverse set of markets to drive sustainable and profitable growth.”
During the last three years, AMD has made significant progress in financial and operational performance. The company returned to non-GAAP profitability and materially diversified its business. Since 2012, AMD has reduced operating expenditures by approximately 30 percent and maintained cash at near an optimal level of $1 billion. AMD also improved its balance sheet by re-profiling its debt with no significant debt coming due until 2019.
Read stated, “I am grateful to have had the opportunity to lead such a talented team and proud of what we have accomplished during such an important chapter in the company’s history. Together, we have established the right strategy to enable AMD to continue to grow and transform. I am confident that Lisa is the right leader to drive AMD forward.”
AMD Teleconference
AMD will hold a conference call for the financial and media communities at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT) today to discuss today’s announcement. AMD will provide a real-time audio broadcast of the teleconference on the Investor Relations page of its website at www.amd.com. The webcast will be available for 12 months after the conference call.
About Dr. Lisa Su
Dr. Su joined AMD in 2012 and was most recently chief operating officer responsible for integrating AMD’s business units, sales, global operations and infrastructure enablement teams into a single market-facing organization responsible for all aspects of product strategy, product execution, sales and operations. Previously, she was senior vice president and general manager, Global Business Units, responsible for the company’s product strategy, product definition and business plans.
Prior to joining AMD, Dr. Su served as senior vice president and general manager, Networking and Multimedia at Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., and was responsible for global strategy, marketing and engineering for the company’s embedded communications and applications processor business. Dr. Su joined Freescale in 2007 as chief technology officer, where she led the company’s technology roadmap and research and development efforts. Prior to her tenure at Freescale, Dr. Su spent 13 years with IBM in various engineering and business leadership positions, including vice president of the Semiconductor Research and Development Center responsible for the strategic direction of IBM’s silicon technologies, joint development alliances and semiconductor R&D operations. Prior to IBM, she was a member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments in the Semiconductor Process and Device Center.
Dr. Su received bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was named Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers in 2009. She has published more than 40 technical articles and was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) in 2009. Dr. Su was named “2014 Executive of the Year” at the EETimes and EDN 2014 ACE Awards and was honored in MIT Technology Review’s Top 100 Young Innovators in 2002. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Analog Devices since 2012.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE: AMD) designs and integrates technology that powers millions of intelligent devices, including personal computers, tablets, game consoles and cloud servers that define the new era of surround computing. AMD solutions enable people everywhere to realize the full potential of their favorite devices and applications to push the boundaries of what is possible. For more information, visit www.amd.com.
Cautionary Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning AMD, its opportunity to shape the future of computing; its ability to develop industry leading technologies and products; its ability to drive sustainable and profitable growth; which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as “believes, “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seeks,” “intends,” “pro forma,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “projects,” “would” and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Risks include the possibility that Intel Corporation’s pricing, marketing and rebating programs, product bundling, standard setting, new product introductions or other activities may negatively impact AMD’s plans; that AMD will require additional funding and may be unable to raise sufficient capital on favorable terms, or at all; that customers stop buying AMD’s products or materially reduce their operations or demand for AMD’s products; that AMD may be unable to develop, launch and ramp new products and technologies in the volumes that are required by the market at mature yields on a timely basis; that AMD’s third-party foundry suppliers will be unable to transition AMD’s products to advanced manufacturing process technologies in a timely and effective way or to manufacture AMD’s products on a timely basis in sufficient quantities and using competitive process technologies; that AMD will be unable to obtain sufficient manufacturing capacity or components to meet demand for its products or will not fully utilize its projected manufacturing capacity needs at GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Inc. (GF) microprocessor manufacturing facilities; that AMD’s requirements for wafers will be less than the fixed number of wafers that it agreed to purchase from GF or GF encounters problems that significantly reduce the number of functional die it receives from each wafer; that AMD is unable to successfully implement its long-term business strategy; that AMD inaccurately estimates the quantity or type of products that its customers will want in the future or will ultimately end up purchasing, resulting in excess or obsolete inventory; that AMD is unable to manage the risks related to the use of its third-party distributors and add-in-board (AIB) partners or offer the appropriate incentives to focus them on the sale of AMD’s products; that AMD may be unable to maintain the level of investment in research and development that is required to remain competitive; that there may be unexpected variations in market growth and demand for AMD’s products and technologies in light of the product mix that it may have available at any particular time; that global business and economic conditions will not improve or will worsen; that PC market conditions, will not improve or will worsen; that demand for computers will be lower than currently expected; and the effect of political or economic instability, domestically or internationally, on AMD’s sales or supply chain. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in AMD’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 28, 2014.
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