Andy Grove, who fled from Nazi and Soviet rule to become one of the most powerful business leaders in the global tech industry as the chairman and CEO of Intel, died on Monday. He was 79. Grove was a longtime sufferer of Parkinson’s disease.
Grove was the first hire at Intel, which was founded in 1968 by former employees of Fairchild Semiconductor. Grove joined on day one as the company’s director of engineering, became Intel’s president in 1979, and its CEO in 1987. He stepped aside as CEO when he developed prostate cancer, but he continued to serve as chairman of the board until 2004. During his leadership, Intel successfully transformed itself from a maker of memory chips to the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductors, growing revenue from $1.9 billion to $26 billion.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of former Intel Chairman and CEO Andy Grove,” said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. “Andy made the impossible happen, time and again, and inspired generations of technologists, entrepreneurs, and business leaders.”
Born András Gróf in Budapest, Hungary, Grove immigrated to the United States in 1956-7 having survived Nazi occupation and escaped Soviet repression. He studied chemical engineering at the City College of New York, completing his Ph.D at the University of California at Berkeley in 1963. After graduation, he was hired by Gordon Moore at Fairchild Semiconductor as a researcher and rose to assistant head of R&D under Moore. When Noyce and Moore left Fairchild to found Intel in 1968, Grove was their first hire.
During Grove’s tenure as CEO, Intel produced chips including the 386 and Pentium, which became name brands unto themselves and laid the groundwork for much of the personal computing era.
“Andy approached corporate strategy and leadership in ways that continue to influence prominent thinkers and companies around the world,” Intel Chairman Andy Bryant said in a statement. “He combined the analytic approach of a scientist with an ability to engage others in honest and deep conversation, which sustained Intel’s success over a period that saw the rise of the personal computer, the Internet and Silicon Valley.”
Grove is survived by his wife, Eva, two children, and eight grandchildren. His books include High-Output Management and Only the Paranoid Survive.
