Xilinx chief Roelandts elected SIA chairman

SAN JOSE, USA: The board of directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) elected Willem ('Wim') P. Roelandts, chairman, president and CEO of Xilinx, as its 2008 board chairman. Roelandts succeeds Richard Templeton, president and chief executive officer of Texas Instruments. Hector de J. Ruiz, chairman and CEO of AMD, was elected vice chairman.

"Wim Roelandts and Hector Ruiz bring many years of leadership in the microelectronics industry to the positions of chairman and vice chairman of the SIA board," said SIA President George Scalise. "That experience will be invaluable as the semiconductor industry continues its efforts to secure additional funding for university research, immigration and education reform to ensure access to a highly skilled workforce, and tax reform to level the global playing field."

"On behalf of the entire SIA board of directors, I want to thank Rich Templeton for his leadership in 2007," Scalise continued. "Rich has been a tireless advocate for our innovation agenda. Under Rich’s leadership, we have made great progress toward building a broad bipartisan consensus on public policy initiatives to enhance U.S. competitiveness, but much remains to be done."

"Leadership in innovation is the key to leadership in technology," said Roelandts. "The SIA public policy agenda is focused on ensuring that the U.S. has a business climate that encourages and supports innovation. I welcome the opportunity to be a spokesman for our innovation agenda."

The SIA is the leading voice for the semiconductor industry and has represented U.S semiconductor companies since 1977 and SIA member companies comprise more than 85 percent of the U.S. semiconductor industry. Collectively, the chip industry employs a domestic workforce of 232,000 people.