On Thursday, AMD announced that its Board of Directors officially appointed 49-year-old former Lenovo President and Chief Operating Officer Rory P. Read as the chipmaker's new President and Chief Executive Officer. Thomas Seifert, who served as interim Chief Executive Officer since January, will return to his role as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer.
"On behalf of my fellow directors, I would like to thank Thomas Seifert for serving as interim CEO," said Bruce Claflin who assumed additional responsibilities specific to AMD’s search for a new CEO but now returns to his role as AMD’s Chairman of the Board. "Under Thomas’ leadership, AMD has continued to make important progress across key areas of the business, successfully executing on major initiatives and new product introductions while improving the company’s financial performance. We look forward to Thomas’ continued contributions to the Company as Chief Financial Officer."
Seifert replaced Dirk Meyer as a temporary CEO of AMD back in January 2011. Since then, the company has slowly emerged back in the mobile market, but at a distance behind Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and GPU rival Nvidia.
With Read now at the helm, it will be interesting to see where he takes the company. After spending 23 years serving under IBM's roof, Read joined Lenovo and worked his way up to managing the company's Americas group. He was then promoted to president and COO in 2009 and helped transform Lenovo "into the world’s fastest growing major PC manufacturer and achieving its largest worldwide market share ever." As Lenovo's former President and COO, he was responsible for leading day-to-day global operations while overseeing the development and implementation of the company’s growth strategy.
"I’m very pleased to be joining AMD at this important time in its history. AMD is a true innovator and is uniquely positioned to lead the industry forward, delivering the next big thing both within the PC ecosystem and beyond,” said Read. “AMD has strong momentum and the opportunity to continue profitably gaining share based on its highly differentiated products, solid financial foundation, and passionate and committed employees. I’m excited to be joining AMD’s employees as we write the next chapter not just for the company, but for the industry and consumers around the world."
AMD shares saw a nice little increase in early-morning trading right after the announcement, selling for $6.65 per share. But the short-lived spike dropped back down to $6.44 per share just after 2 p.m. EDT Thursday.
