Chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has named Rory P. Read its new president, CEO and board member, effective today. Read joins AMD from PC maker Lenovo, where he worked for five years and most recently served as president and COO.
Thomas Seifert, who served as AMD’s interim CEO since January 2011, will return to his role as SVP, Chief Financial Officer.
Seifert replaced Dirk Meyer, who led the team that designed and developed the Athlon processor and went on to become CEO at AMD until he was ousted in January 2011, following a dispute with the board about AMD’s direction.
The search for a new CEO took AMD, which rivals Intel, took over half a year but has now finally come to an end with the appointment of Read.
At Lenovo, Rory P. Read worked his way up to the role of president and COO in 2009, and helped turn Lenovo into the world’s fastest growing major PC manufacturer. Prior to Lenovo, Read spent 23 years at IBM, where he held a range of management positions.
According to Lenovo’s website, Read was “responsible for driving growth, execution, profitability and performance across a global $16 billion enterprise encompasing (sic) 160+ countries”.
AMD has not brought to market microprocessors designed for modern-day smartphones and few for tablet computers, focusing instead on desktop PCs, laptop, server, game console and graphics chips. We’re curious to see where AMD will be heading under its new leadership.
AMD will host a conference call today at 9:15 AM PST regarding the hire.
AMD shares are up almost 5% on the news in early trading.