SUNNYVALE, Calif. – July 17, 2008 – AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced that its board of directors elected President and COO Dirk Meyer as the company’s chief executive officer. Meyer succeeds Hector Ruiz, who will become executive chairman of AMD and chair of the board of directors. As executive chairman, Ruiz will ensure a smooth executive leadership transition, focus on driving the company’s asset smart strategy to completion, and assist with high-level government and strategic partner relations.
“Dirk’s election to CEO is the final phase of a two-year succession plan developed and implemented jointly by AMD’s board of directors and executive team,” said Robert Palmer, lead independent director. “Under Hector’s strong leadership, AMD drove the industry adoption of pervasive 64-bit and multicore computing, became a trusted enterprise-class partner to leading technology suppliers and significantly expanded its global footprint in high-growth markets like China.
“Dirk’s extensive experience as a business leader and his notable engineering accomplishments before and during his 12 years at AMD make him ideally suited to build upon the foundation Hector created and lead AMD.”
“AMD has fundamentally altered the industry landscape, leading the innovation agenda while delivering greater choice and better experiences for our customers and users,” said Ruiz, executive chairman, AMD. “Dirk is a gifted leader who possesses the right skills and experience to continue driving AMD and the industry forward in new, compelling directions. I am placing the company in excellent hands.”
Dirk Meyer, 46, joined AMD in 1995 and made his mark as part of the design team responsible for the original AMD Athlon™ processor, a breakthrough product for AMD and the industry’s first processor to break the 1GHz barrier. From 2001 to 2006, Meyer led the company’s microprocessor business, overseeing related R&D, manufacturing, operations, and marketing. His leadership skills during these five years resulted in a doubling of revenue for the microprocessor business and a substantial expansion of AMD’s global profile. In 2006, Meyer was appointed president and COO, and in 2007, he was elected to AMD’s board of directors.
Hector Ruiz, 62, joined AMD as president and chief operating officer in January 2000 and became AMD’s chief executive officer on April 25, 2002. He has served on AMD’s board of directors since 2000 and was appointed chairman of the board of directors in 2004. He will stay on as Executive Chairman of AMD.
