AMD’s Lisa Su Leaves Cisco Board of Directors

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Conflict of interests?

AMD
(Image credit: AMD)

AMD chief executive Lisa Su along with two others notified Cisco that they would like to leave its board of directors. Su joined Cisco's board of directors in early 2020, but a lot of things have happened since then, which might be a reason why she decided to quit.

"On October 4, 2023, M. Michele Burns, Roderick C. McGeary, and Dr. Lisa T. Su each notified Cisco Systems, Inc. of their respective decision not to stand for re-election at Cisco's 2023 annual meeting of stockholders," Cisco's filing with SEC reads (via Don Clark). "Ms. Burns, Mr. McGeary, and Dr. Su will continue to serve as directors until the 2023 Annual Meeting." 

Neither disclosed reasons for leaving Cisco's board of directors, and we can only speculate about their intentions.

Of the three, Lisa Su is the only leader of high-technology company. When she joined Cisco's board-of-directors in 2020, AMD was beginning to recapture market share in PCs and servers from Intel and expansion prospects were rather foggy. But over the course of three years AMD got a lot bigger. 

The company purchased Pensando for $1.9 billion in 2022 to gain data processing units (DPUs), a type of processors that enables connectivity in datacenters and somewhat competes against Cisco's datacenter connectivity products. In addition, AMD recently launched its EPYC 8000-series 'Siena' processors that target communications and edge servers, thus also encroaching on Cisco's offerings. As a result, Su has at least two conflicts of interests when it comes to Cisco. 

Keep in mind that at this point that this is mere speculation. Before joining Cisco's board, Su left the board of Analog Devices.

Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    In addition, AMD recently launched its EPYC 8000-series 'Siena' processors that target communications and edge servers, thus also encroaching on Cisco's offerings.
    Is that really a competitive offering? Does Cisco make its own, equivalent CPUs that it either sells or internally uses in such products?

    FWIW, I'm surprised she has the time even to attend the Cisco board meetings or give it any mindshare. The only way it makes any sense to me is if she tried to leverage it for the strategic benefit of AMD, although she'd certainly still have to be acting in the interest of AMD.
    Reply
  • Cool-T
    Admin said:
    Three directors leave Cisco's board of directors.

    AMD’s Lisa Su Leaves Cisco Board of Directors : Read more
    I just bought a few shares of Cisco stock. The only recent news I read for them was about plans to buy Splunk, a network security company.. Anyone know how her departure will affect Cisco's operations?
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Cool-T said:
    Anyone know how her departure will affect Cisco's operations?
    Eh, I'm not sure board members do a whole lot. Especially ones with as much on their plates as her. At best, the can provide valuable advice and an important check on management. At worst, they're just a rubber stamp. That said, I'm hardly expert on the matter, so you should probably keep looking for answer to your question.
    Reply
  • vertuallinsanity
    Nice to meet you.. Roderick McGeary's the name. I do the computer stuff. ;)
    Reply
  • jp7189
    bit_user said:
    Is that really a competitive offering? Does Cisco make its own, equivalent CPUs that it either sells or internally uses in such products?

    FWIW, I'm surprised she has the time even to attend the Cisco board meetings or give it any mindshare. The only way it makes any sense to me is if she tried to leverage it for the strategic benefit of AMD, although she'd certainly still have to be acting in the interest of AMD.
    As far as I know, Cisco uses Intel exclusively in its networking products. The heart of their firewalls and higher end switches and routers use Intel CPUs for the management plane. So, if anything Cisco come become a customer of AMD's at that level.

    They also produce various servers similar to Dell or HPE that only just recently started offering an AMD option.

    Now with the acquisition of Pensando things get a bit murky, because John Chambers is the CEO there. The same John Chambers that headed up Cisco for so many years. So, there are undoubtedly many angles to consider there.
    Reply