(Note: this post was originally published in March for the AMD Corporate Responsibility blog.)
I jokingly refer to the work our AMD engineers do in designing microprocessors and graphics processors as “science fiction.” The complexity boggles the mind, especially to a non-engineer such as myself. One of our latest GPUs, for example, has more than 4 billion transistors in it, which all neatly fit on a piece of silicon smaller than a fingernail. These amazing devices are what power your PC, bring amazing visual quality to your game console and keep the Web sites you use every day up and running. As talented as our employees are at their craft, there’s another side to them too. In a word: compassion. Our employees care. Not just about each other and their families, but their communities as well. Founded in 1969, AMD has a proud history of supporting communities where its 11,000-plus employees live and work around the world. In all, AMD has active involvement programs in 17 communities in Canada, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. What does involvement mean? It means contributing modest company charitable dollars to nonprofit organizations supporting education and other issues pertinent to each community, such as hunger, the environment and disaster relief. It means enabling and encouraging our employees to volunteer as teams to distribute food, pick up trash, donate blood, plant trees, landscape parks and build homes, among a variety of other community service projects. It means employees donating thousands of dollars to nonprofit organizations which are then matched by AMD to double the impact. In 2011, more than 1,500 AMD employees recorded 12,693 hours of volunteer service at 253 company-sponsored events, a 5-percent increase in volunteer hours and a 28-percent uptick in company-driven events in our communities around the world. That’s a lot of “sweat equity” to help strengthen communities. Among those 1,535 employee volunteers, I’d like to focus on three in particular. Cathy Roach, an AMD employee since 1993, has volunteered with the Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) in Austin, Texas for 13 years. In 2010, the CAFB distributed 25 million pounds of food to 21 Central Texas counties, providing more than 20 million meals to needy families. Ninety-eight percent of the work done at CAFB is done by volunteers like Cathy who, as a volunteer leader, instructs and guides other volunteers in the inspection and boxing of product before it is distributed to the community. Cathy, an executive assistant who was chosen as AMD’s Volunteer of the Year, is grateful for the opportunity to serve her community. “First and foremost, being a volunteer leader lets me meet a lot of really wonderful people and enjoy their company while helping feed hungry central Texans,” she says. “Being a volunteer leader helps me enhance my facilitation skills as I train the volunteers on projects. The opportunity has taught me to be more patient, tolerant, understanding and caring about the many volunteers that help CAFB strive to fulfill their mission.” Jiao Jie, one of two AMD Volunteer of the Year finalists, is a senior equipment engineer in Suzhou, China, where AMD employs more than 1,000 workers who support back-end manufacturing. Jiao’s volunteer passion is the ChengShan Program, which is a collaboration between AMD and the Suzhou Red Cross. The purpose of this program is to help low-income students finish their college studies. Jiao and her team successfully collected more than 300,000(RMB) in donations which will help more than 100 students complete their college degrees. For Jiao, an engineer, her volunteer efforts not only helped students finish college and attain their career aspirations, but she also learned some valuable skills that helped her professionally. “Leading the project and collaborating with many social channels also improved my communication and coordination skills, which benefits my daily working skills,” she says. The second AMD Volunteer of the Year finalist, Mike Vance, is as inspiring as Cathy and Jaio. Based in AMD’s Bellevue, Washington office, where there are about 50 employees , Mike’s impact is felt more than 9,000 miles away in the Songea region of Tanzania in East Africa. Mike, a Principal Member Technical Staff (PMTS) on the Microsoft Interface team who started at AMD in 1990, has used his IT and video production skills to help bring computer access to a community of orphans in Songea and to publicize the needs of the community through his videos. AIDS, malaria and poor sanitation have created a large number of orphans that overwhelm the ability of this impoverished region to provide adequate care. Mike serves on the board of the nonprofit Songea’s Kids which helps serve 64 orphans assigned to its non-governmental organization (NGO) partner, Jirani Mwema by Songea Child Welfare. With assistance from the NGO, Mshangano Village leaders and the Songea Municipal and Regional government officials, Songea’s Kids is moving forward with plans to build the Hope Village orphanage to support 160 children, as well as provide facilities vitally needed by all the poor children of Mshangano Village. “It has been fantastic to work with a radically different culture, and it provides a great perspective on the needs and capabilities of a country that I used to only know from geography lessons,” Mike says of his experience. “I can really appreciate the challenges of bringing a poor society into the digital age. It has helped me understand how to bring appropriate technology to address people’s needs.” From designing billion-transistor chips to feeding the hungry, our talented and caring employees are what make me proud of my company. It’s the AMD way. Ward Tisdale is Director of Global Community Affairs for AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.