AMD CEO Lisa Su leaves Cisco’s board of directors

Dr. Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, along with two other distinguished individuals, has intimated to Cisco their intent to resign from the board. Dr. Su embraced a position on Cisco’s board in early 2020, having previously departed from the board of Analog Devices.

Documents tendered to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveal that Dr. Su, M. Michele Burns, and Roderick C. McGeary have each communicated to Cisco their decision to abstain from seeking re-election at the 2023 Annual Shareholders Meeting. These luminaries shall continue to serve as directors until the convening of the 2023 meeting. Distinctly, amongst the trio, Dr. Su stands as the sole upper-echelon leader of a high-tech enterprise.

The documents remain reticent regarding Dr. Su’s precise rationale for her departure from Cisco’s board. Speculation suggests that as AMD’s operations burgeoned in recent years, potential conflicts of interest with Cisco may have surfaced. Last April, AMD, in a grand gesture of $1.9 billion, acquired DPU manufacturer Pensando, whose chips, tailored for data center connectivity, ostensibly vie with Cisco’s data center offerings. Additionally, AMD’s recent unveiling of the EPYC 8004 series server processors, codenamed “Siena”, oriented towards edge and telecom sectors, finds some overlap with Cisco’s product spectrum.

Dr. Su’s illustrious academic journey at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology culminated in Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering. Post-academic endeavors saw her joining Texas Instruments as a technician, subsequently transitioning to a 13-year tenure at IBM. There, she ascended to the roles of Deputy Director at IBM’s New York Semiconductor R&D center, Head of R&D, and Special Assistant to the CEO. Her trajectory then led her to Freescale Semiconductor, shouldering the mantle of Chief Technology Officer and subsequently serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Networking and Multimedia. Her ingress into AMD in 2012 witnessed her in roles such as Chief Operating Officer, Senior Vice President, and Global Business General Manager, culminating in her appointment as CEO in June 2014. Furthermore, Dr. Su’s accolades include her esteemed status as an IEEE Fellow, her election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018, and her induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.