AMD shuffles executive ranks

Bergman out, Struhsaker in.

Rick Bergman, general manager of AMD's products group, has left the company "to pursue an opportunity at another company," the chip maker said Thursday.

AMD said that newly-appointed president and chief executive officer Rory Read will assume Bergman's duties and serve as interim general manager of the company's products group. Bergman, who joined AMD when it acquired graphics technology firm ATI in 2006, was seen as a possible candidate for the company's chief executive position after AMD parted ways with former CEO Dirk Meyer in January.

Prior to heading up AMD's Products Group, Bergman served as senior vice president and general manager of the chip maker's Graphics Product Group for several years following AMD's acquisition of ATI. During that period, AMD's graphics business became more competitive and took market share in the graphics card business from chief rival Nvidia. But in recent years AMD has struggled to find a winning formula to compete against Intel and has seen some of its high-profile products delayed repeatedly.

“I want to thank Rick for his many contributions to AMD and wish him well in his future endeavors," Read said in a press statement.

AMD also announced that Paul Struhsaker, 49, has joined the company as corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's newly-formed Commercial Business Division. Struhsaker, formerly senior vice president of engineering at Comcast, will oversee product management and roadmap planning for AMD’s server, high performance computing and embedded products. He joins AMD from Comcast, where he was senior vice president of engineering responsible for all set-top box platforms and video server applications for the Comcast Video Networks.

“The commercial market is vitally important for AMD and the addition of Paul to our team demonstrates our commitment to profitably grow our server business,” said Read in a press statement. “Paul brings an extensive business management background and customer perspective on AMD’s commercial business opportunities. I look forward to working with Paul to help drive the growth plans for this exciting part of our business."

At Comcast, Struhsaker oversaw the company's set-top box platforms and video server applications for Comcast Video Networks. According to AMD, he has more than 27 years of experience in ASIC/FPGA development, software and digital communications systems engineering. Prior to Comcast, Struhsaker was vice president of Silicon Technologies at Motorola and chief technology officer for Texas Instruments’ Broadband Business Unit.

This article originally appeared at crn.com