Advanced Micro Device's Jerry Sanders Hands CEO-ship to Hector Ruiz
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD, Sunnyvale, CA) announced that their chairman and CEO, Jerry Sanders, will turn over position of CEO to Hector Ruiz, effective April 2002. Sanders, who is 64, will retain the chairmanship through 2003. Currently Ruiz is serving as both president and COO of the company.
The coming retirement of Sanders will be a turning-point for AMD. Sanders founded the company in 1968 after leaving Fairchild Semiconductor and kept it afloat through numerous legal battles with Intel. With an electric engineering degree from the University of Illinois, Sanders is credited with the recent success of the Athlon processor.
His successor, Hector Ruiz, was until recently president of Motorola's semiconductor products business. Ruiz received his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Texas, and he earned his doctorate at Rice University. Ruiz is described as being soft-spoken and polite, and he has been praised for his hands-on leadership at AMD.
“Since coming to AMD in January of 2000 as president and COO, Hector Ruiz has taken charge of day-to-day operations and launched a number of initiatives to improve our operational performance and efficiency," commented Mr. Sanders. “We have a great working relationship across the waterfront of strategic and planning issues. Most importantly, he is an outstanding leader and semiconductor industry veteran who shares and embodies the customer- and employee-focused values that define the AMD culture."
