New AMD CEO Starts making big moves, more senior changes to come, possibly

Sep 23, 2011 07:19 GMT  ·  By

While HP probably takes the cake in terms of leadership changes for this week, Advanced Micro Devices isn't far off, what with Products Group General Manager Rick Bergman leaving the corporation.

Advanced Micro Devices may have gone for months with just an Interim CEO, but it finally got a more permanent leader a while ago.

Said leader, Rory P. Read, said he wanted to turn the company into a more aggressive predator.

This, naturally, meant some changes had to be made, and it looks like the departure of Products Group General Manager Rick Bergman is one of them. The CEO himself will cover the responsibilities until a replacement is found.

Meanwhile, Paul Struhsaker, 49, has become part of AMD's team, as corporate vice president and general manager of the newly-formed Commercial Business Division.

“The commercial market is vitally important for AMD and the addition of Paul to our team demonstrates our commitment to profitably grow our server business,” said Read.

“Paul brings an extensive business management background and customer perspective on AMD’s commercial business opportunities. I look forward to working with Paul to help drive the growth plans for this exciting part of our business.”

Struhsaker has over 27 years of experience in ASIC/FPGA development and served as president of Silicon Technologies at Motorola and, more recently, Comcast. He also acted as CEO for Texas Instruments’ Broadband Business Unit.

Then again, if any speculation is arising, it is caused not by Struhsaker but by Bergman's departure.

Certain people even say that him leaving will cause a chain reaction that will spell doom for the Sunnyvale, California-based company as a whole.

Of course, there are also those who say that the executive change was a welcome one, going so far as to state that more of them could do further good. In the end, time will tell, as always.