Ruiz Shares AMD Leadership with Meyer

By Jessica Davis -- Electronic News, 1/23/2006

Dirk Meyer will take a few things off of Hector Ruiz’s shoulders at AMD, as the company today announced the promotion of Meyer to a position of shared leadership with Ruiz.

Meyer will become president and COO of AMD, as Ruiz relinquishes the president title but retains his titles of AMD CEO and chairman of the board.

Ruiz originally took on the three-fold title as AMD Co-founder Jerry Sanders stepped away from the chairman position in 2004.

But just because Ruiz is stepping aside from the operational roles doesn't mean he will soon be following Sanders out the door.

"I don’t think we will be seeing Hector Ruiz exit stage left imminently," said Matthew Wilkins, an analyst covering the PC chip space for research firm iSuppli.

Rather, the promotion is most likely "the case of Dirk being rewarded for teh inputs into the company over the last 10 years."

Meyer joined AMD in 1995 and previously served as president and COO of AMD's Microporcessor Solutions Sector business.

"If we look at how AMD's microprocessor business has been since Dirk got there, it's very, very positive," Wilkins said. "I see it as a reward for the technical engineering and operational contributions he has made to the business."

The 44-year-old Meyer also served in AMD’s Computation Products Group.

“Dirk has played an essential role in AMD’s rise to the position of technology and innovation leader in the microprocessor industry,” said Ruiz in a statement. “He has made amazing progress with our microprocessor business, making it the envy of our industry. His leadership, operational skills and business acumen have positioned the company for long-term, sustainable growth, and I’m very pleased that AMD now will benefit from those skills on an even grander scale.”

Before joining AMD, Meyer worked at Digital Equipment Corp. for nearly a decade and was co-architect of the Alpha 21064 and 21264 microprocessors. Meyer also spent time at Intel Corp., AMD’s prime competitor.