Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM) has appointed Scott A. McGregor, the former CEO of Philips Semiconductors (NYSE: PHG), as its new chief executive.
The move comes hours after Broadcom announced its debut as a serious player in storage controllers and less than a week after its claim to be seeing stronger orders for the present quarter (see Broadcom Struts Storage Stuff, Broadcom Unveils iSCSI Controller, and Chip Gloom Shall Pass).
McGregor, who is 48 and has a Master's degree in engineering from Stanford, resigned his CEO post at Philips Semiconductors, one of five divisions of Royal Philips Electronics N.V. (NYSE: PHG; Amsterdam: PHI), in September 2004, claiming personal reasons, specifically a wish to return to the U.S. after living abroad. He'd been at Philips since 1998 and in the post of CEO at Philips Semiconductors since September 2001.
A software geek by training, McGregor's jobs prior to Philips included stints at the Santa Cruz Operation (a maker of SCO Unix products) and at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he reportedly worked on the first version of Microsoft Windows.
Broadcom seems ready for him. Outgoing CEO Alan E. "Lanny" Ross, who will retire in January, has been "interim CEO" since replacing former CEO and cofounder Henry Nicholas at the start of 2003 (see Big Day at Broadcom). Broadcom's other founder, CTO Henry Samueli, remains chairman of the board.
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