Learn Art of Problem Solving from this Lisa Su Biography

By Ayush Sharma May 27 2021 2:32PM

Lisa Su is the current CEO of AMD, the firm that makes processing chips for PS5 & Xbox. When she joined AMD was bankrupt and she took the responsibility in her hands.

Biography of Chip Queen Lisa Su: Woman who Transformed AMD

In this male conquered world, we see only a few women who make themselves up to the point of recognition. Women are considered as task forces, but they can lead from the front too. In today's article, we will see the biography of a very influential woman, Lisa Su. She is the woman who made the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) business grow more than 1300% from an all-time low with chances of getting bankrupt.

Lisa Su: Introduction

Lisa Su is an Electrical Engineer and American business Executive, but her roots belong to Taiwan. She immigrated to the USA with her parents when she was only 3-years old. Currently, she is the president and Chief Executing Officer (CEO) of a multinational technology giant, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Dr. Su serves on the Board of Directors in Analog Devices, Global Semiconductor Alliance, and Cisco Systems Inc. She has held many positions in her previous workplaces, namely at IBM, Texas Instruments, and Freescale Semiconductor, in engineering and management positions.

Fun Fact: Lisa is known for developing silicon-on-insulator semiconductor manufacturing technologies and more efficient semiconductor chips.

Lisa Su: Early life

Lisa Su was born in Taiwan on 7th November 1969. She immigrated to the United States at a very young age of three. As a kid, she was encouraged to study maths and science by her parents, Sandy Lo and Su Chun-hwai. At a very young age of 10, she was inspired to be an engineer who was curious to see how things worked.

Lisa Su: Education

Lisa Su's elementary education started at Bronx high school of science, New York. She completed high school in the year 1986. She then pursued electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She further enhanced her knowledge with a Master's degree in the same field from MIT in 1991. She didn't stop here. She went for her Ph.D. from Massachusetts in electrical engineering.

Ph.D. from MIT, USA

Lisa was one of the first researchers to study silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. It was, then, an unverified technique to increase transistors' efficiency. She completed her Ph.D. in 1994. She was an enthusiastic student who was busy mostly with designing and adjusting products in the labs.

Lisa Su: Career

As Lisa Su has worked in many firms, we will be going through her career in terms of firms joined by her. Since the start, Lisa took too much interest in semiconductor chips that we currently use in our phones and laptops. She specialized herself in that field.

1994: Texas Instruments In 1994, Su, just after completing her Ph.D., joined Texas Instruments as a Technical Assistant. She worked in the firms' Semiconductor Process and Device Center (SPDC).
1995 – 1999: IBM R&D In 1995, IBM hired Su and appointed her as the research staff member in device physics, and later, she was appointed vice president of the SRDC. During this period in IBM, she worked on a crucial project to determine how to make copper connections work with semiconductor chips instead of aluminum. This resulted in the production of copper technology and chips that were 20% faster than the early versions.
2000-2007: Director of Herself in IBM Lisa was given the role of director of emerging projects. As a part of this, she was to run a startup company to focus on biochips and "low-power and broadband semiconductors." She went onto represent IBM in collaboration with Sony and Toshiba. Su's team developed an idea for the nine-processor chip. It later became a 'Cell microprocessor' that is used in devices like PlayStation 3. She held the position of vice president till 2007 in IBM.
2007-2011: Freescale Semiconductor After quitting IBM, she joined Freescale semiconductor as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in 2007. In 2008, she was promoted to senior vice president and general manager of the firm's networking and multimedia group.
2012-2016: Working with AMD Lisa joined AMD after resigning at Freescale Semiconductor. Su was appointed senior vice president and general manager of Global Business Units at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2012. In AMD, she played a crucial role in pushing the company's product beyond the PC market. AMD joined hands with Microsoft and Sony to make AMD processors for the new generation XBOX and Play station.
When Su joined in 2012, AMD's non-pc products made 10% of sales, but in 2015, the non-pc products made 40% sales. After Su was appointed President and CEO of the firm in 2014, she made it clear that she wanted to simplify the firm and accelerate the development of new technology.
Dr. Su publicly announced that AMD is working on new FinFET chips to make new microprocessors, products, APUs for video game consoles.
2017-Present: working on Ryzen AMD's Ryzen has been used as the most favorable CPUs for high-performance gaming. She has worked more than anyone for AMD, even on the new products of AMD like Ryzen. AMD's sales have grown by 11% after the launch of Ryzen, and there is a big contribution to its success goes to Dr. Lisa Su.

Lisa Su: Accolades and Achievements

Lisa Su has bagged herself numerous awards and honors for various works. This is a list of awards given to her in her career.

In 2019, Su was named as Barron's World's Best CEOs of 2019
2019 –Held 44th position in Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Business
2018 - Forbes' America's Top 50 Women in Tech
2018 - Fortune's #6 Businessperson of the Year
2018 - Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award Global Semiconductor Alliance
2018 - Elected to National Academy of Engineering
2018 - Lifetime Achievement Award Asian Chamber of Commerce
2017 – Included in Fortune's World's 50 Greatest Leaders
2017 - Top-Ranked Semiconductor CEO, Institutional Investor
2015 - Visionary of the Year, SFGate
2009 - IEEE Fellow
2001 - Top 100 Young Innovators under 35

Lisa Su's Personal Life

Dr. Lisa Su is married to Daniel Lin, and the couple lives happily in Austin, Texas. As of 2019, her annual salary package was $58.5 million. And her net worth is $530 million.

Lisa Su: Passion for Life

Lisa Su was a regular graduate from MIT, but her passion for developing semiconductors to an all-new high took her to AMD. After getting appointed as CEO of AMD, she did many reforms to increase the sales from 37% to a new high of 50% with innovative ideas. She worked in a male-dominated workplace and conquered it & even published 40 articles and co-authored a book. Dr. Su is a self-made woman with many feathers in her hat, with many to come in the future.