Héctor Ruiz

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Héctor Ruiz

Dr. Héctor de Jesús Ruiz (born December 25, 1945) is the current Chairman and CEO of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD).

Ruiz was born in the border town of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. As a teenager, he walked across the United States-Mexico border every day to attend a high school in nearby Eagle Pass, Texas, from which he graduated as valedictorian just three years after beginning to learn English. Ruiz earned a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1968 and 1970 respectively and a Ph.D. in quantum electronics from Rice University in 1973. He worked at Texas Instruments for six years and Motorola for 22 years, rising to become president of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector before being recruited in 2000 by AMD founder Jerry Sanders to serve as AMD's president and chief operating officer, and to become heir apparent to lead the company upon Sanders' retirement. Ruiz succeeded Sanders in the CEO's seat in 2002, and was named chairman of the board in 2004.

At the 2004 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Ruiz announced AMD's 50x15 initiative, intended to bring affordable computing and Internet access to 50 percent of the world's population by the year 2015.

Ruiz currently is on the Eastman Kodak Company Board of Directors, the advisory board for the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management (TSEM), and the Board of Directors for the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). He is also a member of the President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST). He previously sat on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations as well as on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC).