COUNTRY OF BIRTH

Taiwan

INDUSTRY

Engineering and Business

TOP ACHIEVEMENTS

Lisa Su is credited with developing silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor manufacturing technologies during her time at IBM. After becoming the CEO of AMD in 2014, the company’s shares have grown by more than 1,300%. She is considered one of the most powerful women in tech and one of the top CEOs in the world.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Lisa Su was born in Taiwan in 1969 and immigrated to the United States when she was a young child. Her father was a statistician and her mother an accountant and entrepreneur. They both encouraged her to study math and science. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1986 and then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree, master's degree, and PhD from MIT. She was one of the first researchers to explore SOI technology.

EARLY CAREER

Lisa Su began her professional career at Texas Instruments. After about a year, she joined IBM as a research staff member in device physics and was then promoted to vice president of a specialized department. She played a crucial role in determining how to make copper connections from semiconductor chips as opposed to aluminum, which resulted in the production of chips that were 20% faster than others at the time. Su continued at IBM as Director of Emerging Projects and was in charge of company that focused on biochips and semiconductors. Her team developed the nine-processor chip, which was later used to power Sony PlayStation 3 and similar devices. In 2007, Su left IBM to become CTO of Freescale Semiconductor. In 2008, she also held the roles of senior vice president and general manager.

ACHIEVEMENTS AT AMD

Lisa Su became president and CEO of AMD in 2014 after spending two years at the company in the roles of senior vice president and COO. In the span of three years, Su increased sales from non-PC markets by 30%. In 2016, Su announced that AMD was working on a new line of products using FinFET technology, and the company’s value increased significantly. When Zen chips were launched in 2017, AMD acquired nearly 11% of the CPU market.

RECOGNITION

Su has won multiple awards and received worldwide recognition. Some of these include:

• In 2001, Su was named a Top Innovator under 35 for the work she did as the Director of Emerging Projects at IBM.
• In 2014, Lisa Su was named Executive of the Year by EE Times.
• In 2016, Su was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology by the National Diversity Council.
• In 2017, she was included in Fortune’s list of the World’s Greatest Leaders.
• In 2019, Su became the first woman to lead The Associated Press’s annual survey of CEO compensation, with a pay package valued at $58.5 million.
• Also in 2019, Su was number 44 on Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women in Business and number 26 on the Harvard Business Review’s list of Best-Performing CEOs in the World.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

Lisa Su has published over 40 technical articles in her professional career. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.