CEO Watch - Hector Ruiz, CEO AMD, Update 6

The saga endures. AMD, the semiconductor laggard, continues to re-shuffle the deck while avoiding the captain at the top. Monday, AMD announced a series of major executive changes in another attempt to right the ship, save money and get their new products out on time and selling. According to James Morris who wrote a story for Custom PC,

AMD may not have the upper hand in the processor business, but it’s shaping up to be the king of ‘organisational and executive changes’. After denying it was laying off 5 per cent of its workforce in March, the company went on to make double that number redundant. Now, as part of ‘ongoing efforts to re-architect its business for sustained profitability’, AMD has created a Central Engineering section.

According to Joel Hruska who wrote a piece for Ars Technica,

AMD is pushing ahead with its plans to restructure the company and cut costs as part of an overall goal to return to profitability by the second half of this year. The company announced several executive-level layoffs reorganizations ...

Departing figures include Mario Rivas, former executive VP of the Computing Solutions Group, and Michael Cadieux, former senior vice president and Chief Talent Officer...

Jennifer LeClaire of CIO magazine chimed in. She wrote,

As part of the shuffle, 24-year AMD veteran Randy Allen is changing hats. Allen was most recently responsible for AMD's server and workstation division and previously oversaw microprocessor engineering, including the successful introductions of the AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon 64 processors.

In his new role as senior vice president of the computing solutions group, Allen reports directly to Meyer and is responsible for the development and management of AMD's portfolio of consumer and commercial microprocessor solutions and platforms. Mario Rivas, formerly executive vice president of computing solutions, has left the company to pursue other opportunities, according to AMD.

... Meanwhile, the newly formed central engineering organization will be co-led by Chekib Akrout, who is joining AMD, and Jeff VerHeul, corporate vice president of design engineering at AMD. The central engineering leadership team will direct the development and execution of AMD's technology and product road maps in partnership with AMD's business units and will report directly to Meyer.

All changes are commendable but would appear to be far too late. A number of analysts surmise the company is preparing itself for a sale. Stay tuned as Ruiz continues to shuffle the deck as the ship keeps taking on water. Could IBM or Freescale ultimately be in the picture? The new employees hail from these firms.