Texas Instruments Inc. named company veteran Haviv Ilan as its next chief executive officer, replacing current leader Rich Templeton in a long-planned succession.
(Bloomberg) — Texas Instruments Inc. named company veteran Haviv Ilan as its next chief executive officer, replacing current leader Rich Templeton in a long-planned succession.
Ilan, 54, who currently serves as operating chief, will take the CEO job on April 1, Texas Instruments said Thursday in a statement. Templeton, who turns 65 later this year, will remain chairman.
Templeton reshaped Texas Instruments during his almost two-decade run atop the chipmaker. He refocused the company on analog chips and embedded processing, choosing products that require less upfront investment in manufacturing and have become increasingly pervasive as everyday items acquire more electronic functions.
Ilan follows Templeton as an executive who’s worked his way up the ranks over decades inside the company — a process the chipmaker called a “well-planned succession.” He became a senior vice president in 2014, then executive vice president and COO in 2020. He joined the board the following year.
“He has a proven track record of delivering results, an intense focus on innovation and a passion to win, all of which make him an exceptional leader,” Templeton said in the statement.
Templeton is retiring from the top job a second time. He was forced to return in 2018 when his first successor left the company after a breach of workplace rules.
Ilan joined Texas Instruments in 1999 when the company acquired Israeli wireless startup Butterfly Communications. He has a degree in electrical engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Northwestern University. Previously in his career at Texas Instruments, he ran its two main businesses, analog and embedded processing.
The chipmaker has focused heavily on investor returns, typically giving all of its free cash back in the form of dividends and stock repurchases. Texas Instruments shares fell 12% last year, part of a broader slump for chip stocks. The stock is up 3.5% this year.
Under Templeton, the company has undergone a favorable reevaluation by investors. Its current market capitalization is $144 billion, more than three times where it was when he took over the top job.
Templeton followed his predecessor in moving the company away from digital chips that require leading-edge manufacturing and tens of billions in annual capital expenditures. But, unlike many of its peers, the company continues to build and operate its own plants and is increasing its ability to manufacture its products in-house.
Texas Instruments has told investors it’ll be spending at an elevated level in the next few years to increase its production footprint. One of Ilan’s major tasks as new CEO will be to make sure the company gets a slice of the more than $50 billion the US government has set aside to encourage the return of domestic chip production and decrease the growing dependency on East Asia.
He’s also walking into the top job at a turbulent time for the industry. After two years of rapid revenue growth during the shortages caused by the pandemic, demand has cooled in key markets such as smartphones and computers. Analysts, on average, predict Texas Instruments’ revenue will shrink 8% in 2023.
The company is one of the oldest chipmakers, with roots to a predecessor, Geophysical Service Inc., which dates back to the 1930s. Texas Instruments was one of the founders of the industry with many of the fundamental inventions that still underpin the $580 billion business coming from its engineers.
(Updates with biographical details in the seventh paragraph.)
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