The first highest-earning female CEO in the world was she: Who is Lisa Su?
In 2019, for the first time, the highest-paid company executive in the world was a woman. That woman was AMD's CEO, Lisa Su. The total fee Su received from AMD was $58.5 million.
Su quadrupled the fee she received from AMD in 2019 compared to the previous year.
When the female executive took over the company in 2014, AMD shares were worth $3, and in 2019 they were selling for about $55.
The highest-paid CEO in the S&P 500, which includes 500 American companies, was 50-year-old Su, followed by Discovery Inc's boss David M Zaslav with $45.8 million. Walt Disney's CEO Robert Iger was in third place with an annual income of $45.5 million.
Lisa Su (born 7 November 1969) is a Taiwanese-born American business executive and electrical engineer, who is the president, chief executive officer and chair of AMD. Early in her career, Su worked at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale Semiconductor in engineering and management positions. She is known for her work developing silicon-on-insulator semiconductor manufacturing technologies and more efficient semiconductor chips during her time as vice president of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center.
There were only 20 female managers in the list, which included a total of 329 names. The first woman to succeed Lisa Su, Marillyn A Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, was paid $24.4 million a year.
Who is Lisa Su?
Lisa Su (born November 7, 1969) is the president and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). She is a Taiwan-born, American business executive and electrical engineer. Early in her career, Su worked in engineering and management positions at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Freescale Semiconductor. She is known for developing silicon-on-insulator semiconductor manufacturing technologies and more efficient semiconductor chips during her time as vice president of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center.
Su was appointed president and CEO of AMD in October 2014 after joining the company in 2012 and holding roles such as senior vice president and chief operating officer of AMD's global business units. Currently Analog Devices, Global Semiconductor Alliance and U.S. She serves on the board of directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Recognized by several awards and accolades, she was named Executive of the Year by EE Times in 2014 and one of the World's Greatest Leaders in 2017 by Fortune.
Career
In June 1994, she became a member of Texas Instruments' technical staff and worked in the company's Semiconductor Process and Device Center (SPDC) until February 1995. That month, IBM hired Su as a research staff member specializing in device physics, and she was appointed vice president of IBM's semiconductor research and development center. During her time at IBM, Su played a "critical role" in developing the "recipe" that would enable copper interconnects to work with semiconductor chips rather than aluminum, "solving the problem of preventing copper impurities from contaminating devices." "My expertise wasn't in copper, but I moved to where the problems were," said Su, who worked with various IBM design teams on the details of the device. Copper technology was introduced in 1998, resulting in new industry standards and chips that are up to 20% faster than traditional versions.
2000–2007: IBM Emerging Products division
In 2000, Su was assigned as a technical assistant to IBM CEO Lou Gerstner for a year. Later, she became the director of newly emerging projects.
2007–2011
Su joined Freescale Semiconductor as chief technology officer (CTO) in June 2007 and led the company's research and development until August 2009. From September 2008 to December 2011, she served as senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's networking and multimedia group.
2012–2014: AMD talks
Su became senior vice president and general manager at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in January 2012. She oversaw the company's global business units and "end-to-end business execution" of AMD products.
AMD announced the appointment of Su as president and CEO, replacing Rory Read on October 8, 2014.
2015–2016: AMD diversity
When Su joined AMD in 2012, about 10 percent of sales came from non-PC products. As of February 2015, approximately 40 percent of AMD's sales came from non-PC markets such as video game consoles and embedded devices. In May 2015, Su and other AMD executives identified high-performance computing and graphics technologies as a growth area for the company.
After the initial launch of Zen chips in the second quarter of 2017, AMD's CPU market share percentage increased to approximately 11%.
In 2019, she was named the highest-paid CEO in the S&P 500 (an index of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States).