(TheForceField.Net ) July 18, 2008 –AMD announced yesterday that its Board of Directors elected President and COO Dirk Meyer as the new CEO of the company. Meyer replaces Hector Ruiz, who led the company during the last six years.
Ruiz led AMD from a second banana in the desktop market to a serious contender in the server arena with the launch of the AMD Opteron processor, transforming AMD from a minor player into a serious competitor for Intel. The company has struggled during the last two years with snafus and product delays, resulting in quarterly losses for AMD. Ruiz will remain on the Board of Directors as Executive Chairman.
Meyer, who joined AMD in 1995,helped design the AMD Athlon processor, was involved in severaly facets of the company's operations, including Research and Development, manufacturing and marketing. He was elected to the board in 2007.
According to a company press release, Myer's appointment was part of a two-year plan. “Dirk’s election to CEO is the final phase of a two-year succession plan developed and implemented jointly by AMD’s board of directors and executive team,” Robert Palmer, lead independent director, said in the press release. “Under Hector’s strong leadership, AMD drove the industry adoption of pervasive 64-bit and multicore computing, became a trusted enterprise-class partner to leading technology suppliers and significantly expanded its global footprint in high-growth markets like China."
