Three AMD Execs Leave The Company Following Management Reorganization

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By Lucian Armasu
published

AMD announced that three of its top executives are leaving the company, a few months after new CEO Lisa Su took over and started reorganizing. The departing execs include John Byrne, former General Manager for AMD's computing and graphics group; Colette LaForce, the company's Chief Marketing Officer; and Rajan Naik, the Chief Strategy Officer.

An AMD spokesperson said in a statement that the three executives are simply looking for new opportunities, although it seems like the new AMD CEO wants some fresh thinking that can turn AMD around.

“These changes to the leadership team reporting into our CEO are a part of implementing an optimal organization design and leadership team to drive AMD's future growth."

AMD's revenue has been declining for the past few quarters, even though AMD managed to win contracts for the chips inside the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One consoles a little more than a year ago, which should have brought the company a significant increase in sales. However, AMD's PC and server businesses are not doing so well lately and are dragging the company's total revenue down.

AMD saw a 65 percent profit drop in its third quarter last year, followed by a 13 percent revenue drop in the next quarter, while Wall Street analysts were expecting the company's revenue to be flat or slightly higher than before.

Lisa Su, the new CEO, has already started hiring new executives such as Forrest Norrod from Dell and James Clifford from RF Micro Devices. AMD has also given two of its Senior VPs, Mark Papermaster (former Senior VP for Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple) and Devinder Kumar, its current CFO, retention stock awards to keep them around.

AMD suffers from multiple problems that work against the company's success, from having a less powerful single-thread CPU micro-architecture than Intel, to using much older process nodes to build its chips, to having financial troubles that don't allow the company to invest in the research it needs to catch up to (or even surpass) Intel.

Turning the company around would be difficult for any CEO. AMD does have a new CPU micro-architecture in the pipeline, along with a new GPU architecture, and it may even start using more cutting-edge process nodes soon that should shrink the gap in performance and power consumption between its processors and Intel's chips.

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Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
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42 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Creme
    Sounds like some people couldn't stand Lisa Su anymore.

    I hope AMD turns around anyway, it's about time, but I don't know if this new CEO will be good. It's still puzzling why the A10-6700T Micro didn't end up anywhere.
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    Again? AMD really need to get their shiz together.
    - Step 1 - make beefy/efficient cpu to compete with intel
    - Step 2 - get a contract to put that, and its gpu's, in all Apple desktops and get it recognised as a "premium" product.
    - Step 3 - Now recognised, the average joe consumer might now not be fearful to buy something with "AMD inside" and AMD can finally sell their chips and actually make a profit rather than continually cutting prices.
    I think that could work.....
    Reply
  • baseline
    Um ya AMD would do just as well to use the Underpants Gnomes business model than to try and hitch themselves to Apples bandwagon.

    Phase I - Collect underpants
    Phase II - ?
    Phase III - Profit
    Reply
  • srap
    Again? AMD really need to get their shiz together.
    - Step 1 - make beefy/efficient cpu to compete with intel
    - Step 2 - get a contract to put that, and its gpu's, in all Apple desktops and get it recognised as a "premium" product.
    - Step 3 - Now recognised, the average joe consumer might now not be fearful to buy something with "AMD inside" and AMD can finally sell their chips and actually make a profit rather than continually cutting prices.
    I think that could work.....
    Yes. Because it's easy just like that, right?

    AMD designer Advanced Joe walks up to the desk, draws up the new processor design with hand, all X billion transistors at it's exact place, circuits, cache, whatsoever. When finished, he passes it up for Enhanced Joe who tests it first with his mind and then a crystal ball. After it has been approved by both E. J. and the Printed Circuit Board Druids Alliance, Superior Joe starts printing the chips with a redesigned HP LaserJet 9001, circumventing the unreliable semiconductor manufacturers and guaranteeing cheap and efficient implementation.
    Reply
  • Joe Black
    I''ve actually toyed with the idea of running an APU system for most of my computing needs. See if I can get away with < 300W total system power usage and still play Dota2, Hearthstone and the games I play regularly. Just keep my beast for the tough stuff.

    With an eye to sticking around in the APU world long term. I just find the whole notion compelling. $2k+ monster machines have kinda lost their appeal for me.

    I just hope they keep the new APUs coming... I'm waiting for the next big iteration when Carrizo gen or beyond comes to the desktop. Then it will be time come hell or high water.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Sounds like some people couldn't stand Lisa Su anymore.
    That hardly seems fair. She's not even been in the job for 6 months and has very impressive credentials. Unless you have some inside gossip to share, I think it takes a lot longer than that to reach any conclusion about her performance. Especially in a semiconductor company, which probably has the second-longest product development times behind auto makers.
    Reply
  • tolham
    "that can turn AMD around"

    I thought Rory Reed already did that.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    15049132 said:
    I''ve actually toyed with the idea of running an APU system for most of my computing needs. See if I can get away with < 300W total system power usage and still play Dota2, Hearthstone and the games I play regularly.
    APUs will always disappoint in the graphics department, unless/until they get a bigger chunk of on-chip RAM (like XBox One) or some faster off-chip RAM (like PS4's GGDR5) or perhaps quad-channel DDR4. Preferably both. Until then, don't give up your discrete GPU.

    I also suspect yield problems have been preventing AMD from utilizing the latest process node due to the comparatively large size of their chips (relative to the ARMs and various mobile SoCs, I mean). Adding more GPU muscle will make this worse - not better. As long as APUs are relatively lower-margin parts, serving the lower-end of the market, I don't see this situation changing.
    Reply
  • iam2thecrowe
    15049142 said:
    Again? AMD really need to get their shiz together.
    - Step 1 - make beefy/efficient cpu to compete with intel
    - Step 2 - get a contract to put that, and its gpu's, in all Apple desktops and get it recognised as a "premium" product.
    - Step 3 - Now recognised, the average joe consumer might now not be fearful to buy something with "AMD inside" and AMD can finally sell their chips and actually make a profit rather than continually cutting prices.
    I think that could work.....
    Yes. Because it's easy just like that, right?

    AMD designer Advanced Joe walks up to the desk, draws up the new processor design with hand, all X billion transistors at it's exact place, circuits, cache, whatsoever. When finished, he passes it up for Enhanced Joe who tests it first with his mind and then a crystal ball. After it has been approved by both E. J. and the Printed Circuit Board Druids Alliance, Superior Joe starts printing the chips with a redesigned HP LaserJet 9001, circumventing the unreliable semiconductor manufacturers and guaranteeing cheap and efficient implementation.

    haha, yeah i know. But thats not what exec's do! they just give the engineers a task, "here make this happen". and if it doesnt happen they employ a new batch of exec's.....maybe fire some engineers....keep churning till some magic voodoo happens, like with the first Athlon cpu's. To be honest, im still a fan of ditching the inefficient bulldozer core design, taking back that old Phenom II core and tewaking it within an inch of its life.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    I''ve actually toyed with the idea of running an APU system for most of my computing needs. See if I can get away with < 300W total system power usage and still play Dota2, Hearthstone and the games I play regularly. Just keep my beast for the tough stuff.

    ... you don't need an APU for that. Just change to a Maxwell card. (And an Intel CPU if you haven't already)
    Reply