AMD's marketing chief steps down

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the leading global provider of innovative microprocessor solutions for computing, communications and consumer electronics markets, said on Wednesday that its top sales executive will leave the company in September.

Henri Richard, the chipmaker's worldwide sales chief and marketing officer who has been with the company for five years, will leave next month, "of his own accord and on completely amicable terms", AMD said.

Richard’s departure which most probably takes effect on September 8 comes ahead of the Sunnyvale, California-based company's highly anticipated new server processor, called Barcelona.

With its four-core Opteron (Barcelona) chip, AMD expects to keep pace with its arch-rival Intel Corp., which has released versions of its Xeon server chips with four processor cores nine months ago.

"I am leaving AMD at a time when the company is in position to break the monopoly that plagues this industry," Richard said in a statement. "I am immensely proud of my contribution to AMD, and in particular, of the strong team I leave behind."

Richard joined AMD in April 2002 as Group Vice President, Worldwide Sales, and was promoted to Senior Vice President in May 2003. Richard, who became an executive officer in February 2004, has been known for his sharp suits and frank comments about rival Intel’s sales tactics.

Before joining AMD, Richard was Executive Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations at WebGain, Inc., a privately held provider of Java software for Fortune 500 companies since September 2000. He also worked as President of the Computer Products Group at Bell Microproducts from April 2000 to August 2000 and from December 1997 to April 2000 he served as Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Support for IBM's Technology Group.

"After 20 years in the PC industry--and five of the most professionally rewarding years here at AMD--I have decided to make a move to a different business segment," Richard said. However, he declined to comment on his future plans.

Although, AMD has not yet provided details on who would be replacing Richards, but said its global sales and marketing organization will now report directly to Chief Executive Hector Ruiz.

Advanced Micro Devices is the world's second-largest maker of personal-computer processors, behind Intel. The company was founded in 1969 by a group of former executives from Fairchild Semiconductor, including Jerry Sanders III, Ed Turney, John Carey, Sven Simonsen, Jack Gifford and three members from Gifford's team, Frank Botte, Jim Giles and Larry Stenger.

AMD is also the world's second-largest supplier of x86 based processors, the largest supplier of discrete graphics products as a result of the merger with ATI Technologies in 2006, and owns a 37 percent share of Spansion, a supplier of non-volatile flash memory.

Intel, which has lost more than 5 percent (as of January 2007) of the overall computer chip market to its archrival AMD, is still the world's largest computer chip maker. It began losing the market share several years ago as customers began attracted to AMD-designed chips that were seen as more energy-efficient.

AMD and Intel have been in this constant attempt to out run each other and grab the monster share of the processor market. In 2005 June, AMD filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel in the Federal District Court in Wilmington, Del., accusing the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip manufacturer of offering rebates of an illegal nature in its rivalry against AMD.

In its landmark antitrust lawsuit, AMD claimed that Intel has forced major customers into exclusive deals and offered secret rebates to diminish AMD’s presence in the microprocessors market.

Advanced Micro had claimed that Intel’s domination of the chip market was by coercion. It said Intel had been maintaining its grip on the $33 billion microprocessor stake by “engaging in a relentless, worldwide campaign of coercing customers to refrain from dealing with AMD”.

However, the world's No. 1 microprocessor maker, Intel has denies the charges. That case is currently pending before the courts.

Some market analysts say Richard's resignation could be a blow to AMD.

AMD shares closed down 16 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $12.01 in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.