GlobalFoundries announced today that its present CEO, Sanjay Jha, is stepping down. Dr. Thomas Caulfield, until today a GlobalFoundries senior vice president and general manager of the company's Fab 8 facility, will be succeeding him in the position. Caulfield assumes control of a worldwide operation with at least 10 manufacturing facilities and a number of other design and development locations.

Dr. Thomas Caulfield. Source: GlobalFoundries

After 17 years at IBM that culminated in leadership of the company's 300-mm semiconductor operations, Caulfield left Big Blue in 2005 and assumed numerous other leadership roles with various firms in the semiconductor industry. He joined GlobalFoundries in 2014 and eventually assumed oversight of the company's leading-edge fab.

A message from Sanjay Jha, “I’m proud to turn the reins over to Tom, who will take GF forward and will do an incredible job.” #foundryforward https://t.co/CDHK7FyLwB — GLOBALFOUNDRIES (@GLOBALFOUNDRIES) March 9, 2018

Dr. Caulfield recently spoke to us about the future of Fab 8 and the company's upcoming 7-nm process technology as part of a foundry tour last month, and his ascension to the CEO role seems like a natural fit at a critical transition point for the company's leading-edge fabrication capabilities. It'll be interesting to see how GlobalFoundries' businesses continue to grow under his watch.

According to the Albany Business Review, Ron Sampson will take over the general manager position at Fab 8. The newspaper says that Sampson led Fab 8's operation and technology development teams before taking over Caulfield's role. Sampson spent 20 years at STMicroelectronics before joining GlobalFoundries in 2014, according to the paper.

GlobalFoundries says departing CEO Jha will work with its parent entity, Mubadala Investment Company, "to explore the development and build out of future systems businesses."