Established in 1999, The Morgan Stanley Leadership Award for Global Commerce recognizes individuals whose personal leadership has made a critical contribution to the effective use of information technology throughout the world.

"You cannot have innovation without having competition, and I mean healthy competition. If you have two universities that are trying to become the best at decoding the human genome, what makes one try harder is the competition with the other one. Everybody wants to get there first. And I think good leaders can create an environment in which healthy competition can occur. That is always good for the market, for the consumer, for the customer." — Hector de J. Ruiz, Ph.D., Oral History

Hector Ruiz is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Dr. Ruiz joined AMD in January 2000 as President and Chief Operating Officer. He was named CEO in 2002, and Chairman in 2004.

Previously, Dr. Ruiz served as President of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector. In his 22-year career with the technology firm, Dr. Ruiz held a variety of executive positions in the United States and overseas. He also worked at Texas Instruments, where he was part of the team that created the first single-chip calculator.

Born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, Dr. Ruiz earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin. He earned his Doctorate in Electronics from Rice University in 1973.

Dr. Ruiz is passionate about the role of technology in educating and empowering the underprivileged. At the 2004 World Economic Forum in Davos, he announced AMD's 50 X 15 Initiative, a commitment to empower 50% of the world's population with basic Internet access by the year 2015.

Dr. Ruiz currently serves on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC), the Eastman Kodak Company Board of Directors, the advisory board for the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management (TSEM), and the Board of Directors for the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).