Ganesh Moorthy CEO, Microchip

Microchip Technology Incorporated announced that its long serving CEO Steve Sanghi will transition to an executive chair role effective March 1, 2021.

Current president Ganesh Moorthy will step into the role of president and CEO effective March 1, 2021.

He will also join the board of directors effective January 4, 2021.

“Leading Microchip for the last 30 years has been the greatest privilege of my 42 years in the semiconductor industry,” said Sanghi. “I believe that now is the time to hand over the reins to Ganesh as my successor. I will continue in the role of executive chair and continue to participate in the strategic direction and growth of Microchip. At the same time, I will create more time to spend with my family and grandchildren.”

Sanghi joined Microchip in February 1990 as SVP of operations and was promoted to president to lead the company in July 1990.

Company’s sales then were about $60 million and it was losing about $10 million per year. Sanghi led the turnaround and later documented this in his book Driving Excellence, How the Aggregate System Turned Microchip from a Failing company to a Market Leader.

He is currently the longest tenured CEO in the semiconductor industry. Under its leadership, the firm went public in March 1993 with annual sales of $89 million and a market capitalization of $85 million.

In the last 27 years as a public company, Microchip’s net sales grew to $5.2 billion and its market capitalization grew to $28 billion. Today, the firm produces industry leading gross and operating margins.

Since its IPO, its stock price has grown 20,000% excluding dividends. The firm has also completed its 120th consecutive quarter of profitability on a non-GAAP basis. During his tenure, it transformed from a small company focused on non-volatile memory products to an embedded solutions powerhouse with a range of solutions, as well as leadership positions in the industrial, datacenter, automotive, communications, consumer and aerospace and defense markets.

The manufacturer has also been an industry consolidator, having acquired about 20 companies including Silicon Storage Technology, Standard Microsystems, Micrel, Atmel and Microsemi. All of them were integrated into Microchip’s business and created value for the firm’s stockholders .

With respect to the appointment, Sanghi stated: “I am delighted to announce that Ganesh Moorthy will become Microchip’s next CEO as we continue to pursue the significant opportunities ahead of us. I have known Ganesh for 39 years since hiring him as a new college graduate at Intel in 1981. He has a demonstrated track record of success and our proven partnership over the last 19 years at Microchip makes him my logical successor. He is an energetic, articulate and thoughtful leader who is widely respected amongst our customers, partners, suppliers, investors and analysts as well as the entire Microchip employee base. Over the years, Ganesh has consistently demonstrated passion, persistence and pragmatism in the pursuit of business results. I find no other person better qualified and suitable to step into the CEO role at Microchip, and I look forward to supporting him in my new capacity as executive chair.”

Moorthy joined Microchip in 2001 and served as the VP of multiple business units. In 2006, he was promoted to EVP with expanded business unit and manufacturing responsibilities; and assumed the role of COO in 2009. He has served as president and COO from February 2016, and since then, he and Sanghi have jointly led Microchip. They partnered for over 10 years to drive Microchip’s growth strategy and track record of innovation and business results which have transformed the company into a leading provider of smart, connected and secure embedded control solutions. In parallel, the company has maintained a leadership development and succession planning process to ensure that Microchip continues to follow this path of success going forward.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to have been part of Microchip’s elite leadership team over the last 19 years. I am humbled, excited and energized to lead the next chapter of Microchip’s growth and success, while fully recognizing that the foundation of our success is our strong culture and the selfless teamwork of our over 18,000 global team members,” said Moorthy. “It has also been the honor of a lifetime to have had Steve as my mentor and my partner through the many years that we have engaged business challenges and opportunities together. I look forward with confidence about Microchip’s future as we transition to the next phase of our partnership in our respective new roles, building on the strong foundation built so far.“