Tata’s semiconductor man: Who is Randhir Thakur?

Tata Son’s chairman N Chandrasekaran is serious about foraying into the semiconductor industry. As the company plans to invest $90 billion in setting up semiconductor fab and ATMP in the coming future, Chandrasekaran has onboarded one of the best talents in semiconductor manufacturing, aka foundry, globally. Dr Randhir Thakur, who was the President at Intel Foundry Services (chip manufacturing), has now joined Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd (TEPL) as the CEO and MD. TEPL was incorporated in 2020, and greenfield venture has expertise in manufacturing precision electronic components.

An Indian by birth (born in Himachal Pradesh), Thakur has had a spectacular career, spanning over 40 years. By qualifications, he is an electronics and telecommunications engineer from the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India, and has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2013. He is also a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Over his 40 years of experience, Thakur has worked at the leading tech companies, right from Applied Materials to SanDisk to Intel. While information for the early years of his professional career is not available, Thakur joined Applied Materials as Chief Technical Officer, Transistor and Capacitor Product Business Group in 2000. He became Corporate VP and General Manager, Substrate Contact and Gapfill Division in 2001 and in 2003, was promoted to Group Vice President and General Manager.

After completing five years and one month at Applied Materials, Thakur was appointed Executive Vice President, Technology and Worldwide Operations of SanDisk in 2005 for three years.

It was a homecoming for Thakur in 2008 when he joined Applied Materials again, but this time as Senior Vice President and GM, Display and Sun Fab Solar Group. Within a year, he became Executive Vice President and General Manager, Silicon Systems Group for six years and led a global team of over 6,000 people, managed P&L of $6Billion+, worked closely with the Board of Directors, and more. In the meanwhile, he joined as the Board Member of Marvell Semiconductors for four years between 2012 to 2016.

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Thakur’s next stint was in 2017, when he joined Intel Corporation as the Chief Supply Chain Officer. And after three years and five months, in March 2021, he became the President of Intel Foundry Services. During his stint at Intel, Thakur worked closely with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2022 during the company’s senior leadership visit to India.

Thakur holds more than 300 patents in the semiconductor field and given his extensive expertise in the field of semiconductors, industry veterans believe he is just the right man for leading Tata’s semiconductor ambition.

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Also read: From Intel to Tata: Veteran Randhir Thakur to lead Tata's $90 bn semiconductor bet; can he deliver?