While late 2010 saw plenty of C-level drama at Hewlett-Packard, 2011 is starting with high-level departures at Microsoft and Advanced Micro Devices. The latest twist is the sudden resignation of 49-year-old AMD President and CEO Dirk Meyer. Judging by board of directors remarks, Meyer’s resignation was forced.
“Dirk became CEO during difficult times. He successfully stabilized AMD while simultaneously concluding strategic initiatives, including the launch of GlobalFoundries, the successful settlement of our litigation with Intel, and delivering Fusion APUs to the market,” said Bruce Claflin, chairman of AMD’s board.
“However, the board believes we have the opportunity to create increased shareholder value over time. This will require the company to have significant growth, establish market leadership, and generate superior financial returns,” Claflin added. “We believe a change in leadership at this time will accelerate the company’s ability to accomplish these objectives.”
A Hard Hunt?
The board immediately named Senior Vice President and CFO Thomas Seifert, 47, as interim CEO while a search committee looks for a permanent replacement. The committee is led by Claflin, who has been named executive chairman of the board as he assumes additional oversight responsibilities during the transition.
“AMD is going after virtualization, cloud and gaming, but they don’t have anybody on the board with that kind of experience,” said Doral Vell, principal at executive search firm Vell Executive Search. “The board is full of heavyweight P&L people from PeopleSoft, IBM, 3Com and other companies.”
Vell said Myer is a longtime AMD veteran, an engineering type who the board clearly felt didn’t have the right strategy for the company. Vell said the question is how long it will take the board to find a candidate it feels confident enough to hire. “It won’t be hard to find candidates willing to go to AMD, but the question is, will the board…