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Ruiz will be AMD's new CEO

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CIOL Bureau
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For the first time since it was founded in the 1970s, Advanced Micro Devices

will have a new chief executive officer in Hector de Ruiz. Ruiz will take over

his position from AMD founder and chairman Jerry Sanders. The promotion will

take effect in April 2002.

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The move is part of the process of preparing AMD for a life without the

flamboyant, controversial and energetic Sanders, who will continue to serve as

chairman from 2003. Ruiz is currently AMD's president, and chief operating

officer. "Since he joined AMD in January 2000, Ruiz has taken charge of the

day-to-day operations and launched a number of initiatives to improve our

operational performance and efficiency," Sanders said in an announcement.

Ruiz had joined AMD from Motorola as Sanders’ heir apparent. Sanders, 64,

is scheduled to retire this December. But, he agreed to add a few months to

allow a smoother transition. "Jerry Sanders is one of the true visionary

leaders of the semiconductor industry, and the driving force behind AMD since

its founding, over 30 years ago," said Charles Black, an AMD board member.

Sanders had, on an earlier occasion, expressed his wish to retire from

service. But this did not happen for nearly two years since the firm’s launch

of high-end Athlon chip forced it to compete head-to-head with rival Intel in

the desktop and notebook computer market. AMD earned $793.8 million on $4.6

billion in sales in the previous year compared to its losses of $88.9 million on

sales of $2.9 billion in 1999.

With his retirement, Sanders will be the last of the group of original

pioneers who built Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry, to leave the

industry. While Intel’s Robert Noyce passed away, partner Gordon Moore and

National Semiconductor chief Charley Sporck retired a decade ago.

Sanders, like Sporck, Noyce and Moore, came from the original Fairchild

Semiconductor company in Mountain View where he was vice president of sales and

marketing. Sanders started AMD by producing ICs for business applications that

were stress-tested under the same rigorous standards set by the Pentagon for ICs

used in military systems.

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