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Let me be the first to say that the two may not be directly related, but it is an awfully strong coincidence that both pieces of news come out on the same day. Indeed, earlier in the day AMD put out a press release (full release past the break) announcing "multiple organizational changes focused on strengthening the company's senior leadership team and accelerating growth." Several familiar names have been promoted within the company to be in charge of more products and visions across their CPU and GPU business units. Mark Papermaster, for example, is now an executive VP as well as CTO of AMD, and the company has also hired in new talent, including industry veteran Sandeep Chennakeshu, as executive VP of "Computing and Graphics responsible for the company's high-performance PC, gaming and semi-custom businesses".
Perhaps all this re-structuring and new hiring comes in handy, at a time when we have seen several people leave AMD for Intel or otherwise. Indeed, shortly after that press release went out, word got to us that James Prior, Senior Product Manager for AMD, and an ardent employee for nearly 6 years, is no longer working for the company. We have no word yet on what is next for James, but it was more than a small surprise to know that the person you just spoke with at CES, and had a long conversation of AMD's desktop processors, is gone just like that. We have known James for many years now, and can attest to his work ethics as well as being a great guy all-round. We wish him the best in his future ventures, and look forward to also seeing how AMD's re-structuring turns out.
The AMD press release follows below:
AMD today announced multiple organizational changes focused on strengthening the company's senior leadership team and accelerating growth.
AMD will unify all sales operations under Darren Grasby, senior vice president and chief sales officer. Grasby will now lead the global sales and go-to-market activities across all product lines, channels and regions. Previously, Grasby was responsible for worldwide sales to PC manufacturers and channel partners. -- AMD has hired industry veteran Sandeep Chennakeshu into a new position as executive vice president of Computing and Graphics responsible for the company's high-performance PC, gaming and semi-custom businesses. Chennakeshu brings extensive semiconductor experience, a deep technology understanding from a systems and software perspective, and extensive general management experience. He has spent the last 30 years serving in multiple senior engineering and executive roles at Ericsson, Freescale, Sony and Blackberry. -- As the datacenter business continues to grow in importance for AMD, Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Group, will now have responsibility for all AMD datacenter products across both CPUs and GPUs. -- AMD is promoting Mark Papermaster to executive vice president and CTO in recognition of his leadership in driving the technology vision and roadmap execution of the company.
"2019 marks an important inflection point for AMD as we prepare to launch our next-generation high-performance 7nm products," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "I am excited to strengthen and align our leadership team around our customers and end markets to sharpen our focus on continued growth and market share gains."
View at TechPowerUp Main Site
Perhaps all this re-structuring and new hiring comes in handy, at a time when we have seen several people leave AMD for Intel or otherwise. Indeed, shortly after that press release went out, word got to us that James Prior, Senior Product Manager for AMD, and an ardent employee for nearly 6 years, is no longer working for the company. We have no word yet on what is next for James, but it was more than a small surprise to know that the person you just spoke with at CES, and had a long conversation of AMD's desktop processors, is gone just like that. We have known James for many years now, and can attest to his work ethics as well as being a great guy all-round. We wish him the best in his future ventures, and look forward to also seeing how AMD's re-structuring turns out.
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The AMD press release follows below:
AMD today announced multiple organizational changes focused on strengthening the company's senior leadership team and accelerating growth.
AMD will unify all sales operations under Darren Grasby, senior vice president and chief sales officer. Grasby will now lead the global sales and go-to-market activities across all product lines, channels and regions. Previously, Grasby was responsible for worldwide sales to PC manufacturers and channel partners. -- AMD has hired industry veteran Sandeep Chennakeshu into a new position as executive vice president of Computing and Graphics responsible for the company's high-performance PC, gaming and semi-custom businesses. Chennakeshu brings extensive semiconductor experience, a deep technology understanding from a systems and software perspective, and extensive general management experience. He has spent the last 30 years serving in multiple senior engineering and executive roles at Ericsson, Freescale, Sony and Blackberry. -- As the datacenter business continues to grow in importance for AMD, Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Group, will now have responsibility for all AMD datacenter products across both CPUs and GPUs. -- AMD is promoting Mark Papermaster to executive vice president and CTO in recognition of his leadership in driving the technology vision and roadmap execution of the company.
"2019 marks an important inflection point for AMD as we prepare to launch our next-generation high-performance 7nm products," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "I am excited to strengthen and align our leadership team around our customers and end markets to sharpen our focus on continued growth and market share gains."
View at TechPowerUp Main Site