AMD today announced the appointment of Nigel Dessau as chief marketing officer (CMO). He brings 22 years of technology sales and marketing leadership experience at IBM and Sun, and will be responsible for AMD’s global marketing, image and campaign strategies. “Nigel’s customer knowledge and experience working for IBM and Sun are tremendous assets as AMD charts a new course for the industry with initiatives such as Accelerated Computing,” said Dirk Meyer, president and COO, AMD. “As we deliver platforms and solutions to best meet our customers’ needs, we will lean heavily on Nigel - who has a proven track record of developing and executing clear, compelling global marketing campaigns.”

Dessau joins AMD from Sun Microsystems, where he was senior vice president of storage marketing and senior vice president of alliances and licensing. Prior to that, he was CMO of StorageTek and spent 19 years at IBM, most recently as business unit executive for IBM Virtualization Solutions. While at IBM, Dessau managed the worldwide launch of the IBM zSeries eServer and oversaw marketing programs for the S/390 brand. He also led the marketing strategy teams responsible for extending the corporate e-business and helping to develop the On Demand Business campaigns.

Born and educated in Nottingham, England, Dessau will be based in Austin, Texas and report to AMD’s Office of the CEO.