June 13, 2020 by Luke James
NXP’s shareholders have “overwhelmingly” elected Sievers at the company’s Annual General Meeting, it was announced on May 27th.
The news comes further to NXP’s announcement in March that its then CEO, Richard Clemmer, would be stepping down. NXP announced that Sievers would be appointed as executive director and CEO “effective immediately”, thereby replacing Clemmer who led the company for 11 years since 2019. In his capacity as executive director and CEO, Sievers will remain as the President of NXP, a role he has held since 2018.
This succession plan has been in place at NXP for several years now, and many industry analysts pegged Sievers as Clemmer’s successor prior to any announcements being made.
In a statement released by NXP, the company’s Chairman, Sir Peter Bonfield, said: “Kurt has proven himself exceptionally qualified to lead NXP into its next chapter, and I could not be more confident in his abilities as he leads the company through the current unpredictable and fluid environment. His expertise across business segments, passion for innovation and connections with NXP investors, customers, and employees around the world make Kurt the right leader to continue and build on the company’s successful strategy for years to come.”
NXP president and CEO Kurt Sievers.
Sievers, who was educated at the University of Augsburg, joined NXP (then Philips Semiconductors) in 1995 and acted as Managing Director of BU Automotive for NXP Germany since 2010 and until his appointment as C+EO. Over the years, Sievers has moved through a series of roles in marketing and sales, product development, strategy, and general management across various market segments.
His work was integral in defining and implementing NXP’s high-performance mixed-signal strategy and he played a huge role in the merger of NXP and Freescale Semiconductors in 2015.
Commenting on his appointment as CEO, Sievers said: “While we face unprecedented times, I remain confident in our winning strategy to develop and profitably grow market-leading and highly differentiated businesses, and continue to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration.”
It is clear that Sievers recognizes that he has big shoes to fill. Clemmer, Sievers’ predecessor, is recognised for his disciplined management approach that narrowed down previously broad technology and product segments at NXP.
This split the company into a handful of differentiated businesses that enabled NXP to corner and lead the market, many through mergers and acquisitions headed by Clemmer, such as the 2015 $12 billion acquisition of Freescale Semiconductors which doubled NXP’s auto-related revenue.
Sievers went on to acknowledge the company’s growing presence in the IoT and Automotive markets, saying: “We leverage our focus on safe and secure edge computing along with connectivity and efficient power management. We have made great strides in our execution and I will stay true to this successful and winning strategy.”
