AMD Taps Nvidia Vet to Lead Global Channel Sales, Names CFO

AMD (NYSE: AMD) has named Roy Taylor, a 25-year industry veteran, to head its Global Channel Sales, tasked with managing and growing the embattled chip maker’s indirect business worldwide as the company rearranges its executive management to focus on new markets and enlist channel support. Taylor, whose official title is corporate vice president and head of Global Channel Sales, reports to John Byrne, AMD senior vice president and chief sales officer, who has been with the company since 2007 and himself has handled worldwide channel sales.

Taylor brings to his new post a varied background that includes stints as a technology evangelist, content strategist and entrepreneur. Most recently, he served as chief sales officer at Rightware, a software startup based in Finland.

However, it is his 10-year term at computer graphics chip maker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)–where his positions ranged from Telco Relations vice president, Content Relations vice president, PC Gaming chief technology officer and vice president posts for GPU Sales and EMEA Sales—that most closely correlate to his new duties at AMD.

“Roy’s enthusiasm and passion for technology evangelization will help strengthen our channel business as we bring new low-power APUs and discrete GPUs to market in 2013 that provide outstanding value, unmatched graphics capabilities and immersive user experiences,” said Byrne.

Taylor, known as an avid gamer, started his career in the component distribution business and founded Addtron, a firm representing sales and marketing for semiconductor vendors.

Separately, AMD said last week it had hired interim chief financial officer (CFO) Devinder Kumar as senior vice president and CFO, effective as of Jan. 2. Kumar, who has held the interim CFO post since last September and is a 28-year company veteran, will report to AMD president and chief executive Rory Read. He replaces Thomas Seifert, who departed the company last October.

It will be interesting to see if the Taylor and Kumar hiring quiets the ongoing turmoil in AMD’s executive quarters. As of last October, Siefert’s departure was the 26th from the vendor’s senior ranks in Read’s 16-month tenure. AMD, which laid off 15 percent of its workforce in October is said to be preparing for another round of layoffs in late January.