Hector Ruiz - Definition

Ruiz was born in the border town of Piedras Negras, Mexico. As a teenager, he walked across the US-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. in electrical engineering from the University of Texas in 1968 and a Ph.D. from Rice University in 1972. 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

External links

• AMD: Hector Ruiz (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/AboutAMD/0,,51_52_570_11569,00.html)
• 50x15 initiative (http://50x15.amd.com/home/default.aspx)