AMD CTO resigns

AMD will not replace Hester; instead, the company is planning to rely on each business units' chief technology officers, reports state.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 4/11/2008

Advanced Micro Devices Inc CTO Phil Hester has resigned, according to reports.

The resignation comes as AMD faces several challenges: In addition to delaying its Barcelona launch on design glitches in 2007,  putting it months behind competitor Intel’s launch of quad-core sever processors and dragging its technology behind Intel’s in terms of chip performance,  the company continues to struggle to reach profitability. As such, AMD announced a 10% workforce reduction earlier this week as it projected a 15% sequential decline in Q1 revenue. 

According to reports, Hester’s decision to exit AMD was not due to the layoffs. The company will not replace him; instead, the company is planning to rely on each business units’ chief technology officers, reports further state.

Hester (pictured) joined AMD in 2005 after spending more than 20 years at IBM, where he held several executive positions including CTO of the PC division and VP of the RS/6000 hardware-development group.

Hester becomes the latest in a line of high-level executives to leave the Sunnyvale, Calif-based company. In July 2007, AMD lost highly regarded industry veteran David Orton, formerly ATI’s CEO, who became an AMD executive VP when the chipmaker bought the graphics-chip maker. Henri Richard, formerly AMD’s chief sales and marketing officer, also left AMD, in September 2007, for a position at Freescale. That same month, Rick Hegberg, AMD's former senior VP of worldwide sales, announced plans to depart from his post. 

AMD could not be reached for immediate comment by Electronic News. The company has already removed links to Hester’s profile from its Web site.