Daisuke (Doug) Koshima (pictured) has been named as successor to the CEO and Chairman role as vacated by Toshihiko Fujimoto, who has moved to take up the role of General Manager for strategic planning within Sharp Corp.’s International Business Group. Mr. Koshima, a 37-year employee of the company, departs from his former role as Corporate Director and Group General Manager of the International Business Group. 

Conflicting rumors have been circulating in the past 48 hours regarding the most recent executive departures from the ranks of AMD. News has been abounding that Chris Talago, former head of PR for AMD’s EMEA region, and Gianluca Degliesposti, EMEA Director of business development for AMD, have either left the company of their own volition or have been fired from the company (the latter news piece proceeded to update and change its view of the ‘forced’ departure following the intervention of an AMD PR executive - see end of piece). 

NXP Semiconductors has bolstered its Automotive & Identification Business Unit by appointing Peter Geiselhart (pictured) to the Hamburg-based role of Senior Vice President and General Manager of Car Entertainment Solutions. 

Edwards has enlisted the expertise of Michael Allison (pictured), former VP of business operations at KLA-Tencor, to oversee sales and service operations in both the semiconductor and solar divisions of the vacuum equipment company. 

Leaving his former title as Semiconductor International’s Editor-in-Chief to recent recruit Laura Peters, Peter Singer has joined the competition to head up Solid State Technology’s editorial. His appointment will see him apply his 25 years of experience with SI to both print and online activities of SST. 

National Semiconductor has appointed Jennifer Bleakney Vice President of worldwide distribution and customer support. Bleakney, formerly Executive Director of worldwide distribution for Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., will oversee marketing and distribution asset management strategy for the analog IC manufacturer. 

According to CNNMoney and Businessweek, AMD has seen two of its executives depart in the past four days. It seems that the company’s Graphics Director Vijay Sharma has announced his intended resignation, as has Victor Peng (pictured), Vice President of Engineering for the company’s graphics department.

IMEC’s engineering courses are to be continued this year from May to June 2008 at IMEC’s Leuven, Belgium-based facility. The two- and three-day courses are geared towards engineers, technicians, managers and executives with responsibility in the realms of process development, device design and manufacture, research and marketing. 

Gennum Corporation’s Board of Director has expanded with the addition of two industry experts. Steven Bilodeau, CEO of Standard Microsystems Corp. (SMSC) and Jeffrey McCreary, former senior executive at Texas Instruments, have joined the Gennum Board to help guide the company’s development. 

Following the surprise move by Peter Singer to take the helm at Solid State Technology (SST) magazine, Semiconductor International has named former lead technical editor of SI Laura Peters (pictured) as Editor-in-Chief. Bringing more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry to the role, Ms. Peters has worked for years in the technical editorial industry.