Andrew Stephen "Andy" Grove (; born 2 September 1936) is a Hungarian American businessman and engineer. He was one of the earliest employees of Intel Corporation and ultimately played key leadership roles in its success.
Grove was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary. Growing up, he was known to friends as "Andris". At the age of four, Andris was diagnosed with scarlet fever. The disease was nearly fatal, and while he survived, he suffered significant hearing loss as a result. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 he left his home and family under the cover of night and emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City in 1957. Grove and his wife Eva were married in 1958 and raised two daughters.
Grove earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the City College of New York in 1960, and earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1963.
Grove worked at Fairchild Semiconductor before becoming the third employee at the nascent Intel Corporation. He became Intel's president in 1979, its CEO in 1987, and its Chairman and CEO in 1997.
Grove is credited with having transformed Intel from a manufacturer of memory chips into one of the world's dominant producers of microprocessors. During his tenure as CEO, Grove oversaw a 4,500% increase in Intel's market capitalization from $4 billion to $197 billion, making it, at the time, the world's most valuable company. He relinquished his CEO title in May 1998 and remained chairman of the board until November 2004. Grove continues his work at Intel as a senior advisor.
While Grove was, in fact, Intel's third employee, he received employee number four by a clerical error. Leslie L. Vadász was hired by Andy Grove and was designated as employee number three by virtue of the same clerical error.
Robert Noyce and Gordon E. Moore were the co-founders of Intel, along with six others who left Fairchild Semiconductor. Noyce claims to have been the catalyst of the group, and some suggest that the relaxed culture at Intel was a carryover from Noyce's style at Fairchild. Grove, on the other hand, was fiercely competitive, and he and the company became known for his guiding motto: "Only the paranoid survive". Noyce was essentially anti-competitive, even to the extent that, as Tom Wolfe in "Hooking Up" points out, all spaces in the parking lot were fair game, first come, first served. This difference in styles reputedly caused some degree of friction between Noyce and Grove.
On August 25, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that Grove would be one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in The California Museum's yearlong exhibit. The induction ceremony was on December 1, 2009 in Sacramento, California.
Strategic Management Society's Lifetime Achievement Award (2001) Strategic Management Society - Home
IEEE 2000 Medal of Honor (2000) IEEE Medal of Honor Recipients
Time Magazine's Man of the Year (1997)
Industry Week's Technology Leader of the Year (1997) IndustryWeek : 1997 Technology Leader of the YearAndy Grove: Building An Information Age Legacy
CEO magazine's CEO of the Year (1997) CEO OF THE YEAR 1997 | Articles | CEO Index
The 1st Annual Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment
AEA Medal of Achievement award (1993)
IEEE Engineering Leadership Recognition award (1987) IEEE - Andrew S. Grove, 1936
Franklin Institute Certificate of Merit (1975)
In 2006 he made a 26,000,000 USD donation to City College of New York, the largest donation ever made to that school.
"When TV first came, people tried to look at it as a radio with pictures. We're at the stage now where the Internet is TV with poor connections."
"A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done."
"Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive."
"Just as you would not permit a fellow employee to steal a piece of office equipment, you shouldn't let anyone walk away with the time of his fellow managers."
"Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite."
"You have to pretend you're 100 percent sure. You have to take action; you can't hesitate or hedge your bets. Anything less will condemn your efforts to failure."
"Technology happens, it's not good, it's not bad. Is steel good or bad?"
"People can't memorize computer industry acronyms"
"Your career is your business, and you are its CEO"
