On one corner, you have a very well decorated PHD CEO, Dr. Su... On the other corner, you have a community organizer from San Jose State....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Su
1994-1999: Texas Instruments and IBM R&D[edit]
In June 1994 Su became a member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments,[10] working in the company’s Semiconductor Process and Device Center (SPDC)[9] until February 1995.[10] That month[6] IBM hired Su as a research staff member specializing in device physics[16] and she was appointed vice president of IBM’s semiconductor research and development center.[6] During her time at IBM,[4] Su played a “critical role”[5] in developing the “recipe”[2] to make copper connections work with semiconductor chips instead of aluminum, “solving the problem of preventing copper impurities from contaminating the devices during production.”[5] Working with various IBM design teams on the details of the device, Su explains that “my specialty was not in copper, but I migrated to where the problems were.”[4] The copper technology was launched in 1998,[5] resulting in new industry standards[16] and chips that were up to 20 percent faster than the conventional versions.[4][5]
2000-2007: IBM Emerging Products division[edit]
In 2000 Su was given a year-long assignment as the technical assistant for Lou Gerstner, IBM’s CEO. She subsequently took on the role of director of emerging projects, stating that “I was basically director of myself – there was no one else in the group.”[4] As head and founder of IBM’s Emerging Products division, she ran a startup company and soon hired 10 employees to focus on biochips and “low-power and broadband semiconductors.” Their first product was a microprocessor that improved battery life in phones and other handheld devices.[5] MIT Technology Review named her a “Top Innovator Under 35” in 2001, in part due to her work with Emerging Products.[16] Also through the division, she represented IBM in a collaboration to create next-generation chips with Sony and Toshiba. Ken Kutaragi charged the collaboration with “improving the performance of game machine processors by a factor of 1,000,” and Su’s team eventually came up with the idea for a nine-processor chip, afterwards used to power devices such as the Sony PlayStation 3. As of 2006 she continued to serve as vice president of the semiconductor research and development center at IBM,[4] holding the role until May 2007.[10]
2007-2011: Freescale Semiconductor[edit]
Su joined Freescale Semiconductor in June 2007[10][17] as chief technology officer (CTO), heading the company’s research and development[3][9] until August 2009.[10] From September 2008 until December 2011[10] she served as senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's networking and multimedia group, and was responsible for global strategy, marketing, and engineering for the company’s embedded communications and applications processor business.[9][10] As head of the company’s networking-chip business,[16] EETimes credited her with helping Freescale get “its house in order,” with the company filing for an IPO in 2011.[3]
2012-2014: AMD appointments[edit]
Su became senior vice president and general manager at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in January 2012,[9] overseeing the company’s global business units[3][17] and the “end-to-end business execution” of AMD’s products.[9] Over the next two years she “played a prominent role”[17] in pushing the company to diversify beyond the PC market, including working with Microsoft and Sony to place AMD chips in Xbox One and PS4 game consoles[16]
On October 8, 2014, AMD announced Su’s appointment to president and CEO, replacing Rory Read.[6][18] Su stated that her plan for the company involved focusing on making the "right technology investments," streamlining the product line, and continuing to diversify, also asserting that she wanted to “simplify” the company and accelerate the development of new technology.[8] A number of analysts praised the appointment due to Su’s credentials, noting AMD was seeking growth in product areas where Su had “extensive experience.”[19]
2015-2016: AMD diversification[edit]
AMD CEO Lisa Su in June 2015.
By February 2015, roughly 40 percent of AMD’s sales came from non-PC markets such as video game consoles and embedded devices. When Su joined AMD in 2012, about 10 percent of sales came from non-PC products.[2] In May 2015, Su and other AMD executives presented a long-term strategy for the company to focus on developing high-performance computing and graphics technologies for three growth areas: gaming, datacenter, and “immersive platforms” markets.[20]
In January 2016, Su announced that AMD was working on new FinFET-based chips to create a new line of microprocessors, products, accelerated processing units (APUs), graphics chips,[21] and semi-custom chip designs for unreleased video game consoles.[21][22] AMD’s share value spiked in July 2016 when AMD reported strong revenue growth. Fortune attributed the “impressive” statistic to Su, stating she “continues to execute on her comeback plan… key gains in graphics and video gaming console chips have boosted results as well as a savvy deal to license server chip designs in China.”[22]