AMD's Chief Technology Officer resigns

Sunnyvale (CA) – AMD confirmed on Friday that Phil Hester has resigned from his position of chief technology officer at the company.

Hester follows Dave Orton and Henri Richard who left AMD last July and September, respectively. AMD said that Hester is leaving on his own accord pursue other opportunities. There is no replacement for Hester at this time.

The announcement ends a week of not so great news for the chip maker. On Monday, AMD said that it would miss its Q1 revenue guidance by more than $100 million and cut approximately 10% of its staff. In a letter sent to employees, president and chief operating officer Dirk Meyer justified thsi move by stating the the company needs to bring its cost structure in line with its financial performance.

There is no doubt that Phil Hester, who joined AMD in September of 2005, played a much more subdued role than Fred Weber, who was considered teh „64-bit CTO“ and father of AMD’s Athlon 64 processor. As chief technology officer, Hester reported to Dirk Meyer and was responsible for setting the architectural and product strategies as well as plans for AMD’s microprocessor business. According to his biography that was posted on AMD’s website until earlier today, Hester also chaired the AMD Technology Council.

Prior to AMD, the 52-year-old executive co-founded Newisys and spent 23 years at IBM. It is unclear whether Hester already has a new employment in sight.

Henri Richard joined Freescale as senior vice president, chief sales and marketing officer last year. There is no information on any new employment of Dave Orton.