AMD Hires Top Intel Exec Dan McNamara To Grow EPYC Business

AMD has hired former top Intel executive Dan McNamara to take the chipmaker's EPYC server processor business to the next level following the launch of last year's second-generation products, code-named Rome.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced on Thursday that McNamara was appointed senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Server Business Unit. McNamara was most recently senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Network and Custom Logic Group and served on the company's executive leadership team.

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An Intel spokesperson declined to comment.

McNamara will report directly to Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Business Group, according to company spokeswoman Sarah Youngbauer. He is taking over from Scott Aylor, AMD's corporate vice president and general manager of datacenter solutions, who is leaving later this year at an unspecific date, Youngbauer added.

Youngbauer said Aylor's upcoming departure was not related to the hiring of McNamara.

Aylor, who spoke to CRN for an interview in late 2019 and has been with the company since 2013, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Linkedin.

McNamara, who left Intel in October, had only been named the head of Intel's Network and Custom Logic Group a few months before when the new division was formed through the combination of the company's network infrastructure organization and programmable solutions group.

The executive, whose previous role was senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Programmable Solutions Group, had joined Intel in 2015 when the semiconductor giant acquired Altera for $16.7 billion, becoming the foundation for the company's portfolio of FPGAs, also known as field-programmable gate arrays, for data center applications.

McNamara worked at Altera from 2014 to 2015, during which he served in a series of executive roles, including senior vice president of the company's embedded division.

The hiring of McNamara was announced alongside the promotion of four senior executives: Nazar Zaidi to senior vice president of cores, server SoC and systems IP engineering; Andrej Zdravkovic to senior vice president of software development; Spencer Pan to senior vice president of Greater China sales and president of AMD Greater China; and Jane Roney to senior vice president of business operations.

"Strengthening and expanding our leadership team are key to building on the significant momentum we have generated over the past several years," Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO, said in a statement. "I am delighted to announce these additions to our senior leadership team. Each of these leaders will play key roles in helping us achieve our long-term growth objectives in the coming years."