TITLE: President and CEO
COMPANY: STMicroelectronics
BASED: Geneva, Switzerland
AGE: 61
NATIONALITY: French

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Jean-Marc Chery, who holds an engineering degree from ENSAM school of engineering in Paris, began his career at Matra, working in the quality organization. In 1986 Chery joined Thomson Semiconductors, which later became STMicroelectronics, and held management positions in product planning and manufacturing, including head of ST’s wafer fabs in Tours and Rousset, France. He later became a top manager at ST’s Asia-Pacific operations. In 2008 he was promoted to chief technology officer and was given additional responsibilities for manufacturing and quality and digital products. Chery was named chief operating officer in 2014 and deputy CEO in 2017, with responsibility for technology, manufacturing, sales and marketing. He was named president and CEO of STMicroelectronics in May 2018.   

REASON FOR WINNING

The sudden, widespread chip shortage that exploded in the autumn of 2020 has pitted automakers against semiconductor suppliers, but Jean-Marc Chery of STMicroelectronics has always tried to play on the automakers' side. First, he says, that is because automakers and suppliers represent about one-third of the revenue at STMicroelectronics, one of Europe’s largest semiconductor makers. And second, because nothing about what has happened in the last 18 months was predictable, in his view.

In 2020 the semiconductor market was worth $430 billion globally, and the industry invested about $100 billion, about a quarter of its total revenue. About $70 billion in investments went into expanding production to prepare for growth of more than 10 percent this year. But in reality, 2021 demand has risen by 20 to 25 percent above the planned capacity increase -- and a global chip market that was supposed to reach $580 billion in 2023 or 2024 is already there now. To meet demand, Chery pulled forward a lot of ST’s capital expenditures, raising the investment target for 2021 to more than $2 billion from $1.5 billion to build additional capacity, but there is a physical limitation. "We cannot go beyond that because of equipment lead times and product qualification times," he said.