AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced today that Mark Papermaster, 50, has joined as the company's senior vice president and chief technology officer. He will report to President and Chief Executive Officer Rory Read and will oversee all of AMD's engineering, research and development (R&D), and product development functions as the head of the newly-formed Technology and Engineering Group. Papermaster, who was most recently vice president of Silicon Engineering at Cisco, will be responsible for establishing and executing the company's technology and product roadmaps, integrated hardware and software development, and overseeing the creation of all of AMD's products.

The advanced research and development team led by Senior Vice President of Research and Development Chekib Akrout, as well as the engineering teams residing in AMD's Products Group, will now report to Papermaster. Akrout, 53, will maintain responsibility for leading AMD's processor core development as well as system-on-a-chip (SoC) design methodology. In recognition of his ongoing technical and management contributions, Akrout will continue serving on AMD's senior leadership team responsible for key decision making and strategy setting.

"Mark's appointment significantly strengthens AMD's senior leadership," Read said. "Mark has held substantial engineering roles for three of the technology industry's most innovative companies. He is a proven winner who knows the industry, knows our customers and flat out knows technology.

"The newly-created technology and engineering group aligns all of AMD's outstanding technical talent into a centralized team which will improve our time-to-market and help lift our execution across the board. Most importantly, this new organization accelerates our ability to consistently deliver on our customer commitments and help our customers win."

At Cisco, Papermaster was responsible for the silicon strategy, architecture, and development for the company's switching and routing businesses. Prior to Cisco, Papermaster served as Apple's senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering responsible for the iPod and iPhone hardware development. He has also held a number of senior leadership roles at IBM, serving on the company's Technical Leadership Team and overseeing development of key microprocessors and blade server technologies.

Papermaster has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and a master's degree in electrical engineering from The University of Vermont. He is a member of the University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering Advisory Board and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation IT Advisory Committee. Papermaster will be based in Sunnyvale, California.