Former Intel CEO Andy Grove Dies

Tributes roll in for Andy Grove, former president and CEO of chip giant Intel, who passed away on March 21 at age 79. Grove was present for Intel’s founding in 1968, and at various points, he served as Intel's president, CEO, and chairman of the board.

Born in Hungary, Grove escaped to America after the Soviet crackdown of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1963 and went to work for Fairchild Semiconductors, where he met Intel founders Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. When Noyce and Moore left Fairchild to found Intel, they brought Grove along as their first employee.

Andy Grove was instrumental in switching the company's emphasis from building DRAM memory chips to making microprocessors, a move that ensured Intel’s place in the history of the personal computing revolution. According to Intel’s announcement, Grove “… led the firm’s transformation into a widely recognized consumer brand. Under his leadership, Intel produced the chips, including the 386 and Pentium, that helped usher in the PC era. The company also increased annual revenues from $1.9 billion to more than $26 billion.”