Last summer it was Henri Richard, AMD sales chief, and Visual Media Business chief Dave Orton, a month ago it was Phil Hester, AMD's chief technology officer, and now Mario Rivas, who had been executive vice president of AMD's computing solutions group, and Michel Cadieux, formerly senior vice president and chief talent officer, have left AMD to "pursue new opportunities," the company said.
Randy Allen, formerly chief of AMD's server business, will become senior vice president of the company's Computing Solutions Group, that's the department responsible for developing AMD's processors and chipsets, and previously held by Rivas. He will now report directly to Dirk Meyer, AMD's president and chief operating officer. Allen delivered a major update to AMD's server roadmap last week.
AMD is also forming a group called the Central Engineering organization. The new organization will oversee the development and execution of the company's product roadmaps throughout its business units. The Central Engineering group will be co-directed by Chekib Akrout, a veteran of Freescale and International Business Machines who is joining AMD, and Jeff VerHeul, corporate VP of design engineering at AMD, who joined the company in 2005 from IBM. Both will report directly to the Dirk Meyer. AMD also promoted Allen Sockwell to head of human resources and Chief Talent Officer. He'll replace Michel Cadieux.
Dirk Meyer said the company is accelerating a transformation that will reshape its organization and bolster its management team. He further added saying, "Placing experienced leaders in new, more focused roles will enhance our execution and progress towards sustained profitability and long-term success."
AMD did not disclose the reasons Rivas and Cadieux resigned, other than saying they were part of a series of management changes connected to the company's ongoing restructuring efforts.
AMD has lost more than USD 4 billion since the last three months of 2006 and its stock has fallen from over USD 40 in 2006 to around USD 7 in recent times. Last month the company announced plans to throw out about 1,600 workers out of 16,800 worldwide, in an overhaul expected to be finished by September.