Another year, another change in the executive officer list

Dec 15, 2014 13:00 GMT  ·  By

At this point it's hard to gauge exactly what's going on in the minds of the leaders of Advanced Micro Devices. In a way, it's a surprise that the position of chief sales officer has changed hands. In other ways, it was to be expected.

Just a short time ago, AMD released a very short press release (embedded below) in which it revealed the latest changes in executives.

For once, it's all for the good, as a certain fictional character would say. At least as far as the two people getting promotions are concerned.

However, it does make one wonder why all these changes are happening. Especially after what occurred back in early October, which in the grand scheme of things wasn't all that long ago. But first let's see what the latest changes consist of.

AMD has a new head of sales for the Computing and Graphics business unit

40-year-old Mario Silveira has been promoted to the position of head of worldwide consumer sales within the company's Computing and Graphics business unit.

Previously, he served as head of consumer sales for EMEA. EMEA is an acronym for Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

As you can see, he already oversaw a pretty huge kettle of fish. Now his role will be more overarching, his task a bit more daunting, but AMD thinks he can do it. After working with AMD since 2010, he should have learned the ropes. Meanwhile, his old post will be taken over by Gabriele Rentocchini.

What this means for the world at large

Not much, from a purely practical standpoint. AMD will continue to develop central processing units, accelerated processing units, and graphics processing units (CPUs, APUs, and GPUs).

Still, one has to wonder if AMD is trying to set a trend for itself with all these staff changes. True, executive shuffling happens often in the corporate world, but the Sunnyvale company appears to be doing it much more often than others.

As we mentioned previously, one such change occurred in October, when the CEO Rory Read himself left his position. He's been an advisor ever since, but that won't last for long. It feels as though he was only brought on board to clean house (many people were fired in the past few years) and now that his task is done he's moving on.

Mario Silveira will have to oversee lots of contracts now, particularly new ones. Especially now that supercomputers and game consoles are using AMD's products.

Show Press Release

AMD gets new sales head (4 Images)

Mario Silveira, the new head of sales
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