Kurt Sievers put forward as next NXP CEO

NXP’s board of directors has nominated Kurt Sievers to be appointed president and CEO of NXP. Sievers (50), already president, will succeed Richard Clemmer as CEO, who rather abruptly took the helm from Frans van Houten in December 2008 when NXP was taking a nose-dive. Clemmer had a lot of help from Sievers in getting the organization back on its feet in the following years, Clemmer says in a statement. He refers here to the company’s strategic reorientation on high-performance mixed-signal ICs and to implementing a more customer-focused corporate culture.

Originally trained as a physicist, Sievers joined NXP (then Philips Semiconductors) in 1995 and rapidly moved through a series of management positions in a number of different market segments. Since joining executive management in 2009, he settled on automotive, which has become NXP’s largest activity after the merger with Freescale in 2015. Sievers was influential in the merger process, NXP notes in a press release.

NXP’s shareholders will vote on Sievers’ appointment at the annual general shareholders meeting scheduled for 27 May. Clemmer will stay at NXP as a strategic advisor.