Chipmaker AMD undergoes major restructuring as two senior executives leave

Advance Micro Devices (AMD) may have just unveiled an ambitious two-year plan to launch new products and return to profitability, but it seems to be losing employees left, right and centre.

After its announcement last month of shedding 10 per cent of its workforce of 16,800, the chip manufacturer said two top executives have recently left the struggling chipmaker, including the head of its slumping microprocessor business. (See: AMD unveils ambitious two-year plan; to produce 12-core chips in 2010)

The departing executives are Mario Rivas, former executive vice-president of the Computing Solutions Group, and Michael Cadieux, former senior vice president and chief talent officer. AMD said that they had left to ''pursue new opportunities'', without furnishing further details.

The latest management reshuffle comes almost a month after the resignation of senior vice president and CTO Phil Hester. Before Hester, AMD had lost two other senior executives. Henri Richard, chief of sales and marketing, left in September last year, and David Orton, head of the graphics unit, left in July.

Rivas has been replaced with senior vice president Randy Allen, a 24-year AMD veteran who will be responsible for the development and management of the company's portfolio of consumer and commercial microprocessors. Allen Sockwell, who has been promoted to senior vice president of human resources and chief talent officer, replaces Cadieux.

According to Dirk Meyer, AMD president and chief operating officer (COO), these consolidations ''will enhance our execution and progress towards sustained profitability and long-term success. The creation of a centralised engineering organization aligns and focuses AMD's world-class engineers and intellectual property portfolio on the strong business opportunities in front of us.''

As part of an ongoing reorganization to regain profitability, the company formed a central engineering unit and said it would be co-led by Chekib Akrout, who is joining AMD after serving as vice president of design technology at Motorola spin-off Freescale Semiconductor. Sharing responsibilities with Akrout will be Jeff VerHeul, corporate vice president of design engineering at AMD. The executives will report directly to Meyer.

Since the last three months of 2006, AMD has reported more than $4 billion in losses. The company's stock has fallen from more than $40 in 2006 to about $7 today. Despite the huge losses, AMD executives have said they expect to break even by the end of the year through the introduction of new products and by reducing operating expenses.