Texas Instruments promoted a company insider to the role of chief operating officer, bolstering its leadership ranks as the analog semiconductor giant grapples with the fallout from Covid-19.
The company said it promoted Haviv Ilan, senior vice president of the analog signal chain business, to the role of executive vice president and chief operating officer. Ilan, who joined Texas Instruments more than 20 years ago, will oversee the company's business and sales divisions, technology and manufacturing operations, and information technology services.
Rich Templeton, president and CEO at the Dallas, Texas-based company, said he would bring his “authentic leadership style, drive for continuous improvement and passion to win” to the new executive role. "I look forward to continuing to work together to further strengthen the company in the long term,” Templeton, who also serves as chairman, said in a statement.
The move comes as TI grapples with uncertainty related to the lethal virus, which is stifling the global economy and hurting demand for analog chips, which are among the building blocks of everything from smartphones to cars to thermostats. The electronics supply chain has also been tossed into turmoil by the virus, which has caused more than 175,000 deaths in the US. The company last month said second-quarter revenue slipped by more than 10%.
TI, the world's top player in analog semiconductors, is also facing mounting competition. Analog Devices last month said it plans to buy rival Maxim Integrated for more than $20 billion to fortify its market share in standard, non-custom analog chips, including power management and interfaces used in the industrial, consumer and automobile markets.
TI remains one of the world’s largest chip manufacturers, with revenue last year of more than $14 billion and a market value of around $130 billion. It is also the most diversified company in the global chip business, selling 80,000 products to more than 100,000 customers globally. It is tightening its grip over the global market for analog chips, with 19% market share in 2019.
The role of chief operating officer had been vacant since June 2018, when Brian Crutcher was elevated to chief executive, succeeding Templeton. Crutcher resigned and surrendered his board seat after spending less than two months as the CEO, stepping down due to what the company said were code-of-conduct violations. TI said at the time that he resigned after it was alerted to "personal behavior" at odds with its "ethics and core values."
The company promoted Crutcher to the No.2 role in January 2017. Templeton, who remained chairman, returned permanently to the dual role of president and chief executive in July 2018.
Before taking over TI's analog signal chain business, Ilan was head of its high-performance analog business, which sells products ranging from power management to data converters to interfaces. He also served as vice president in its embedded processing unit,leading its wireless connectivity business. Ilan, 52 years old, has worked at the company since 1999.
Ilan earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering at Tel Aviv University.
