AMD Co-founder and Maxim founder Jack Gifford dead of apparent heart attack
January 13, 2009.  San Jose Mercury News.

John Gifford, who founded analog chip maker Maxim Integrated Products and served as 
its chief executive until his retirement in 2007, passed away Sunday of an apparent 
heart attack, according to a company press release distributed Monday.

Gifford was born in 1941 and grew up in Los Angeles. After graduating from UCLA in 
1963 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, he worked for Fairchild 
Semiconductor, first in sales in L.A. and later in marketing in Silicon Valley.

An industry legend, Gifford was one of the many engineers who left Fairchild to 
start their own companies in the 1960s. Gifford helped co-found Advanced Micro 
Devices in 1969 and later became president of Intersil, which he left in 1983. 
Weeks later he founded Maxim, which became a public company in 1988.

”Jack founded Maxim with the firm belief that analog integrated circuits would 
prove to be a great growth market. He led our Company with steadfast determination 
for 24 years, grew it from the ground up to over $2B in sales” said Tunç Doluca, 
Maxim’s CEO, in a written statement.”His success provided returns for shareholders 
and income for over 10,000 employees and their families over his long tenure here. 
He was a strong leader with seemingly limitless energy and enthusiasm. His attention 
to detail and guiding management principles established the highly pragmatic culture 
at Maxim.”

Gifford left Maxim in 2007 on the advice of his doctor, citing declining health 
as he wrestled with federal investigations into the suspicious timing of stock 
options. He stayed on as a special strategic adviser.

”It’s caused by having more to do than you can do,” Maxim Vice President Charles 
Rigg told the Mercury News at the time. ”He basically took on two companies: Maxim, 
and the other was  this backdating issue. It got to be more than he could handle. 
The things that came out of  that is high blood pressure, a loss of weight, that 
sort of thing.”