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Thursday, July 17, 2008
Dirk Meyer succeeds Hector Ruiz as AMD CEO
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has replaced Hector Ruiz as chief executive, naming Dirk Meyer to succeed him. Ruiz will remain chairman.
The announcement came as AMD reported its seventh quarterly loss in a row, including a per-share loss that was bigger than Wall Street had expected. Its shares fell almost 10 percent on that news in extended trading.
Meyer, 46, had been AMD’s chief operating officer. In a press release this afternoon, the company’s board said his election was “the final phase of a two-year succession plan” developed by directors and top management.
Meyer joined AMD in 1995 and led the company’s microprocessor business from 2001 to 2006. He became chief operating officer two years ago and was elected to AMD’s board last year.
He takes over the tough job of leading the chip company’s David against Goliath Intel Corp. Intel controls most of the processor marketplace, and it has turned up the pressure on its smaller rival over the past year.
In addition to staying on as chairman, Ruiz, 62, will continue to lead AMD’s evolving “asset-light” strategy, which analysts expect will mean the spinning off of its manufacturing operations.
Ruiz said today he hopes to complete the program this year.
Ruiz joined AMD in 2000 as chief operating officer. He became CEO on April 25, 2002.
His tenure was marked by high highs and low lows, and often little in between. The company scored a clean victory over Intel in 2003 when it released the Opteron processor for servers. But Intel since has flexed its size and resources to squeeze AMD — a recurring theme in the competition between the companies.
