Who Is Lisa Su? Cousin Of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Expects Employees To Work After Midnight

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su, who was named TIME Magazine's CEO of the year in 2024, has high expectations from her employees in leading her $210-billion chipmaking company.

Since becoming CEO of AMD in 2014, Lisa Su has significantly transformed the company, positioning it as a major competitor to industry giants like Nvidia and Intel.

However, this success comes at a cost. According to a report by CNBC, Su, who happens to be Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's cousin, often holds late-night meetings and communicates with her employees even late at night with expectations of responses after midnight.

Su believes the demanding schedule is driven by the company's ambitions, which inspire her team to push their limits.

"I don't believe leaders are born. I believe leaders are trained," she told TIME after winning the prestigious award.

"People are really motivated by ambitious goals. The previous strategy of, 'Hey, let's just do a little bit better here and there' — that's actually less motivational," she said.

Lisa Su was born in Taiwan and moved to New York at the age of three, where her father pursued his studies in mathematics. Her exposure to mathematics at an early age, fuelled by her father's rigorous quizzes at the dinner table, was the foundation of her academic aspirations. 

She earned her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her academic excellence translated to a successful career, with stints at companies like Texas Instruments and IBM in the 1990s. Lisa Su is one of the few Fortune 500 CEOs with a PhD.

She joined AMD in 2012 as Senior Vice President and General Manager, and two years later became the company’s first female CEO.

Since Lisa Su became CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2014, the company has experienced remarkable growth, with its stock price increasing nearly 50 times. She has strengthened AMD's market capitalisation, positioning it alongside industry giants like Intel and Nvidia.