David E. Orton (born 1955) is an American engineering executive and the CEO of GEO Semiconductor Inc. Orton earned a BS in mathematics and economics at

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

, and a MS in electrical engineering from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. He worked in the graphics and semiconductor industry as an engineer at

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

in 1979 to 1983 and then

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

through December 1988. He joined

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

(SGI) in 1990, and was senior vice president of visual computing and advanced systems through 1999. In 1996 SGI bought

Cray Research Cray Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is an American supercomputer manufacturer headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It also manufactures systems for data storage and analytics. Several Cray supercomputer systems are listed i ...

and Orton had to deal with merging the companies' overlapping technologies. Orton joined

ATI Technologies ATI Technologies Inc. was a Canadian semiconductor industry, semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985, the company listed pub ...

as a result of an acquisition of ArtX in April 2000, where he was president and CEO. ATI posted losses after the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

collapsed, although losses were reduced by June 2001. He was named CEO of ATI in March 2004. Though ATI's principal location was in

Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in Regional Municipality of York, York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, Orton spent a portion of his time in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

where he resided. After the announced merger of

Advanced Micro Devices Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a Information technology, hardware and F ...

(AMD) with ATI on July 24, 2006, as ATI Technologies became a subsidiary of AMD, Orton became an executive vice-president of AMD, reporting to AMD

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Hector Ruiz and COO Dirk Meyer. On July 10, 2007, AMD announced the resignation of Orton as executive vice president. One trade journalist rated Orton as the top of the "CEOs that went in 2007". From 2007 to 2009, he was CEO of the startup DSM Solutions. On July 15, 2009, Orton became the CEO of

Aptina Aptina Imaging Corporation was a company that sold CMOS imaging products. Their CMOS sensors were used in the Nikon V1 (10.1 MP, Nikon CX format, CX format, 16.9x17.9 mm), Nikon J1, and Nikon V2. By 2009, Aptina had a 16% share of the CMOS ...

, a privately held image sensor company located in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. He left Aptina in September 2012. He was on the board of directors of SuVolta.

References

External links

Photograph of David E. Orton
Living people ATI Technologies AMD people Silicon Graphics people American technology chief executives Duke University Pratt School of Engineering alumni Wake Forest University alumni 1955 births {{US-CEO-stub