Courtesy GlobalFoundries
After more than four years as chief executive officer of GlobalFoundries, Sanjay Jha will hand over the company’s top position to Dr. Thomas Caulfield, who has been the senior vice president and general manager of the Malta Fab 8 plant since 2014.
Caulfield, who lives in Saratoga Springs, joined the company in 2014 following a career spanning engineering, management, operational leadership and global executive experience with leading technology companies including 17 years at IBM in a variety of senior leadership roles.
Ronald Sampson will take over as senior vice president and general manager of Fab 8. Sampson leads the operations and technology development at the Malta factory.
During his tenure at GlobalFoundries, Caufield successfully built and ramped the company’s 14nm production facility in Malta,
According to the company, the Malta plant is the most advanced foundry facility and one of the largest public-private partnerships in the United States.
In 2015, the company acquired IBM’s microelectronics business, bringing a team of more than 1,000 technologists and a portfolio of 16,000 patents. GlobalFoundries successfully leveraged these capabilities to build the New York facility and to accelerate development of 7nm.
“Tom Caulfield is the right person to build on this record of success and strengthen GlobalFoundries’s position as a leading foundry partner to the semiconductor industry.”
“I am honored to be given this chance to lead GlobalFoundries at such an exciting time at the company and in our industry,” said Caulfield. “With exciting new customers coming into the market, we have the unique technology portfolio and executional track record to reset the competitive playing field in the rapidly-growing foundry segment. And we will continue to change the industry that is changing the world.”
Jha intends to work closely with the company’s shareholder, Mubadala Investment Co., to explore the development and build out of potential future systems businesses, according to the company.
“Fab 8 is a true manufacturing success story and proof that innovation is alive and well in the U.S. semiconductor industry,” Caulfield said. “I am committed to capitalizing on the significant investments we have made to build Fab 8 into a trusted partner for our leading-edge customers. Ron is an experienced leader and an integral member of the Fab 8 team.”
Sampson joined GlobalFoundries in August 2014 as the vice president of program management at Fab 8. Prior to that, he spent 20 years at STMicroelectronics where he held a variety of progressive leadership positions in technology development, manufacturing, operations and program management within both ST and with the IBM-led Joint Development Alliances.
Prior to his time with ST, he worked at Digital Equipment Corp.’s Hudson, Mass., Advanced Semiconductor Development facility.
Sampson holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Duke University.