CEOs for the long run

Other than being a top money winner on the Professional Tetris Players Circuit, my dream job would be CEO of a semiconductor company. Those guys pull down the big bucks, they get to make cool products, and they’ve got incredible job security.

Take these two dudes: Brian Halla of National Semiconductor and Jerry Fishman of Analog Devices. Both have held their CEO posts since 1996. You can quote your Shakespeare, “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” but I’m betting those guys sleep real good at night.

Intel is famous for having had only five CEOs in 39 years. John East has been the CEO of Actel for more than 18 years. Man, that’s sweet. You’d think his job is secure, but Actel is one of those companies that are reviewing their historical practices in granting stock options, and those reviews can result in dire consequences for CEOs, as David French of Cirrus Logic found out.

In the past year, though, Silicon Valley has seen two founder CEOs brought down. George Perlegos of Atmel was fired by his board after leading that company for 22 years. The board cited his alleged misuse of corporate travel funds. A special board committee also found evidence of backdating in past stock options and laid blame at the feet of Perlegos. Of course, he had already been fired and chased off the board, so there wasn’t much more his former fellow directors could do to him.

Jack Gifford retired as chairman and CEO of Maxim Integrated Products at the end of 2006, ending a 23-year reign. The official line was that he was retiring for health reasons. His health had suffered after six months of reviewing past practices in granting stock options, including an informal inquiry by the SEC and a subpoena for records from federal prosecutors. After a special board committee concluded in early 2007 that there had been some hijinks with stock options over the years, Maxim’s CFO resigned and Gifford retired from the part-time advisory post he received after stepping down from the board and senior management.

Come to think of it, I’ll restrict my aspirations to the Tetris tour.