Jerry Sanders (businessman)
Encyclopedia
- For the Mayor of San Diego, California, see Jerry Sanders (politician)Jerry Sanders (politician)Gerald Robert "Jerry" Sanders is an American politician, Mayor of San Diego, California, and former Chief of Police.-Personal life:...
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Walter Jeremiah Sanders III (born September 12, 1936) was a co-founder and a long-time CEO of the American semiconductor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
(AMD).
Jerry Sanders III grew up in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, raised by his paternal grandparents. He was once attacked and beaten by a street gang, leaving him so covered in blood that a priest was called to administer the last rites
Anointing of the Sick
Anointing of the Sick, known also by other names, is distinguished from other forms of religious anointing or "unction" in that it is intended, as its name indicates, for the benefit of a sick person...
, but Jerry recovered. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
on an academic scholarship from the Pullman railroad car company
Pullman Company
The Pullman Palace Car Company, founded by George Pullman, manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s...
. He graduated with his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in engineering in 1958.
After graduation he went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Company
Douglas Aircraft Company
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...
. He eventually moved to Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
, then to Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. is an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957, it was a pioneer in transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing...
. He became known as one of Fairchild
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. is an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957, it was a pioneer in transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing...
's best sales people in the 1960s and was famous for his style and flair.
In 1968 Sherman Fairchild
Sherman Fairchild
Sherman Mills Fairchild was an inventor and serial entrepreneur who founded over 70 companies namely Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Industries, Fairchild Aviation Corporation and Fairchild Camera and Instrument. Fairchild made significant contributions to the aviation industry and was inducted into...
brought a new management team into Fairchild Semiconductor, led by C. Lester Hogan, then vice president of Motorola Semiconductor
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
. The troops from Motorola, also known as "Hogan's Heroes", were notoriously conservative, and immediately clashed with Sanders' boisterous style.
He was one of the architects of Silicon Valley.
In 1969 a group of Fairchild engineers decided to start a new company, which became Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
(AMD). They asked Jerry Sanders to join them, and he said he would, provided he became the president of the company. Although it caused some dissension within the group, they agreed, and the company was founded with Sanders as President.
Sanders took his trademark style into his position as the CEO of AMD.
He remained the company's consummate salesperson, always available to come in on the really tough negotiations and close them. He loved visiting the Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
sales office on Wilshire Blvd near Hollywood and staying at the Beverly Hills Hilton
Hilton Hotels
Hilton Hotels & Resorts is an international chain of full-service hotels and resorts founded by Conrad Hilton and now owned by Hilton Worldwide. Hilton hotels are either owned by, managed by, or franchised to independent operators by Hilton Worldwide. Hilton Hotels became the first coast-to-coast...
. Sanders always wanted to make money, but he realized that the key to earning wealth was for everyone else at AMD to make a lot of money too. While growing wealthy, he also lavished wealth generously on all his employees. At the end of the company's first $1 million quarter, Sanders stood by the door of the company and handed a $100 bill to every employee as they left. Every employee at the company got stock options, a huge innovation at the time.
Sanders gave the company a strong sales and marketing orientation, so that it was successful even though it was often a little behind its competitors in technology and manufacturing. He shared the success of the company with the employees, usually coincident with sales-oriented growth targets. One time, as a successful sales goal was met, the company held a drawing among all the employees, and an immigrant production worker in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
won $1000 a month for 20 years (USD 240,000).
He drove the company through hard times as well. In 1974, a particularly bad recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
almost broke the company, but a brilliant sales deal worked out by Sanders with one of the company's distributors saved the company. Through many difficult recessions he refused to lay off employees, a reaction to the rampant layoffs that had occurred at Fairchild earlier. Instead of cutting employees, he asked them to work Saturdays to get more done and get new products out sooner.
In 1982, he was responsible for a licensing deal with Intel that made AMD a second source to IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
for the Intel Microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
series, a deal that eventually made the company the only real competitor to Intel.
In 2000, Sanders recruited Héctor Ruiz
Héctor Ruiz
Hector de Jesus Ruiz is the chairman and CEO of Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions Inc. and former CEO & executive chairman of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. .-Education:...
, at the time the president of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, 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.
Jerry Sanders has four children (three from his first marriage and one from his second), three who are now adults and one who is currently living with him and his wife, Tawny, and his daughter Paris.
Sanders created Advanced Micro Devices; his personality was the company's personality — colorful, brash,and extremely innovative.
His maxim was: "people first, products and profit will follow!" This was given as a printout for each AMD worker who started a job at AMD in Dresden/Germany until Jerry Sanders retirement.
External links
- The Fairchild Chronicles
- Interview with Jerry Sanders at his alma mater
- Massive source of links and reviews regarding Jerry Sanders
- Profile of Jerry Sanders
- AMD "Jerry Sanders" Creative Design Competition
- http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DigitalMedia/30724C_Jerry_Sanders_E.jpg