Grove, Andrew S. 1936-

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GROVE, Andrew S. 1936-

PERSONAL: Original name Andras Istvan Grof; name legally changed; born September 2, 1936, in Budapest, Hungary; immigrated to the United States, 1957, naturalized citizen, 1962; son of George (in business) and Maria (a bookkeeper) Grof; married Eva Kastan (a homemaker), June 8, 1958. Education: City College (now of the City University of New York), B.S., 1960; University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1963.

ADDRESSES: Office—Intel Corp., P.O. Box 58119, 2200 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, CA, 95054-1549. Agent—Owen Laster, William Morris Agency, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER: Electronics company executive. Fairchild Semiconductor Research Laboratory, San Jose, CA, member of technical staff, 1963-66, section head in surface and device physics, 1966-67, assistant director of research and development, 1967-68; Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, vice-president and director of operations, 1968-75, executive vice-president, 1975-79, president, 1979-1998, chief operating officer, 1976-87, chief executive officer, 1987-1998, chairman of board of directors, 1998—. Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley, 1966-72; Currently a lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

MEMBER: National Academy of Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS: Achievement award from Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 1966; J. J. Ebers Award, 1974; certificate of merit from Franklin Institute, 1975; Townsend Harris Medal from City College of the City University of New York, 1980; Hall of Fame Award, Information Industries Association, 1984; Council of 100 Members, Arizona State University, 1984; Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, City College of New York, 1985; IEEE Engineering Leadership Recognition Award, 1987; Enterprise Award, Business and Professional Advertising Association, 1987; George Washington Award, American Hungarian Foundation, 1990; Citizen of the Year award, World Forum Silicon Valley, 1993; Executive of the Year award, University of Arizona, 1993; Achievement medal, American Electronics Association, 1993; Heinz Family Foundation Award for technology and economy, 1995; John von Neumann medal, American Hungarian Association, 1995; Steinman medal, City College of New York, 1995; Statesman of the Year award, Harvard Business School, 1996; International Achievement Award, World Trade Club, 1996; IEEE 1997 Computer Entrepreneur Award, 1997; Cinema Digital Technology Award, Cannes Film Festival, 1997; Technology Leader of the Year, CEO magazine, 1997; Man of the Year, Time magazine, 1997; CEO of the Year, CEO magazine, 1997; Honorary doctorate from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 1989; Distinguished Executive of the Year, Academy of Management, 1998; Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, Harvard University, 2000; IEEE 2000 Medal of Honor, 2000; Lifetime Achievement Award, Strategic Management Society, 2001.

WRITINGS:

The Physics and Technology of Semiconductor Devices, Wiley (New York, NY), 1967.

High Output Management, Random House (New York, NY), 1983.

One-on-One with Andy Grove: How to Manage Your Boss, Yourself, and Your Co-Workers, Putnam (New York, NY), 1987.

Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company and Career, Currency Doubleday (New York, NY), 1996.

Swimming Across: A Memoir, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Author of a weekly column in San Jose Mercury, 1984—.

SIDELIGHTS: As one of the founders and leaders of the Intel Corporation, Andrew S. Grove has become one of the most recognizable names in the computer industry. Grove is largely credited for turning Intel into one of the computer world's most important players because of his decision in the mid-1980s to move the company away from microchip technology and toward developing the use of microprocessors. Many people believe that decision not only saved the company but also put it ahead of its competition in the industry. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Intel was the world's largest producer of semiconductors and microprocessors.

Grove helped found Intel in 1968, and has at one time or another served as its president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board. Many observers have noted Grove's sharp mind, especially when it comes to his ability to manage a company. According to Current Biography Yearbook, Grove's "genius has been in applying exacting management skills and tough business practices to create the efficient corporate environment responsible for Intel's success." Due to his tremendous personal success, Grove's influence has reached beyond the business world. In 1997, Time magazine bestowed its prestigious Man of the Year honor on him. In the edition in which the award was announced, Time writer Walter Isaacson commented on the personal traits that have led to Grove's accomplishments. "He has a courageous passion alloyed with an engineer's analytic coldness, whether it be in battling his prostate cancer or in guiding Intel's death-defying climb to dominate the market for the world's most important product," Isaacson wrote.

Grove has written several books detailing his ideas about business management, including High Output Management, One-on-One with Andy Grove: How to Manage Your Boss, Yourself, and Your Co-Workers, and Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company and Career. He has also written a critically-acclaimed memoir, Swimming Across, which Lawrence R. Maxted of Library Journal called an "excellent book."

Grove was born Andras Grof in 1936 in Hungary. A Jew, he lived through the Holocaust when the Nazis occupied much of Europe during World War II. He also lived through communist oppression in the years after the war. He fled the country in 1956, after Soviet tanks crushed the failed Hungarian Revolution. He eventually made his way to the United States, where he legally changed his name to Andrew Grove and moved into a small Brooklyn apartment with an aunt and uncle. Not long after, Grove enrolled at the City College of New York, and began studying engineering. After graduating, he began doctorate work at the University of California at Berkeley, where he excelled at chemical engineering.

When it came time to move to the professional world, Grove turned down several job offers from established companies, instead choosing to work for a new computer company, Fairchild Semiconductor. At Fairchild, Grove was part of a research team that studied the use of silicon in transistors. Eventually the team solved how to stabilize microchips, earning several important awards for their discovery. In 1968, Grove left the company with Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and the three men founded Intel, which is short for integrated electronics. Grove became chairman of the company's board of directors in 1998.

Grove recalls much of his personal story in Swimming Across, which was published in 2001. A large portion of the book is devoted to his early years in Budapest and how the Nazis made life difficult for Jewish families. Grove's father, in fact, was taken prisoner while serving as a laborer for the army during the war. Grove and his mother were forced to move outside Budapest, where a Christian family sheltered them from harm. Although Grove's father returned to the family after the war, life did not get any easier, as Russian soldiers replaced the Nazis. He recalls in the book the time a Russian soldier raped his mother, and how the Communist government nationalized his father's once-profitable dairy business. After the Soviets crushed the Hungarian uprising of 1956, Grove and a friend fled, under the cover of darkness, to Austria, and eventually on to the United States.

In a review of Swimming Across, a contributor for Business Week described this journey as one of the most exciting aspects of the book. "His escape to America is the most dramatic and compelling part of the book, heightened, like the rest of his story, by a spare, matter-of-fact tone," the reviewer wrote. The remainder of the book describes Grove's arrival in the States and ends with his enrolling at the City College of New York.

Grove derived the book's title from a childhood episode when a teacher of his told a classroom full of parents that life was like a lake, which their children were trying to swim across. "Not all of them swim across. But one of them, I'm sure, will," Grove writes in the book. "That one is Grof." Grove concludes his memoir by writing, "I am still swimming." Several critics lauded the effort, including the contributor for Business Week, who called it a "fascinating and moving memoir." David Rouse, who reviewed the book for Booklist, felt the work was "moving and inspiring."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Current Biography Yearbook, H.W. Wilson (New York, NY), 1998.

Newsmakers: The People behind Today's Headlines, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Book, November-December, 2001, pp. 26-27.

Booklist, September 15, 1996, p. 191; October 1, 2001, p. 297.

Business Week, December 3, 2001, p. 22.

Fortune, October 14, 196, pp. 216-217.

Globe and Mail (Toronto), June 27, 1987.

Library Journal, September 1, 1996, p. 190; October 15, 2001, p. 86.

New York Times, October 18, 1983.

Online, January-February, 1997, p. 84.

Publishers Weekly, August 19, 1996, pp. 45-46.

Time, October 21, 1996, pp. 88-89; December 29, 1997.

Times Literary Supplement, May 31, 1985.