Business Leaders: Texas Instruments’ Rich Templeton
Name: Richard K. Templeton Date of Birth: 1958Company: Texas InstrumentsPosition: Chairman (2008-present), President and CEO (1996-2004)Previous role: Chief Operating Officer (2000-2004)Education: BS from Union College (1980)Quote: "The winners in the world will be those that embrace the global market place as an opportunity, not as a threat."
Rich Templeton doesn't limit his sights to the United States. The CEO of the parochially-named Texas Instruments aimed to build a global business. He has repeatedly remarked that the U.S. is only five percent of the world's population. "There are big markets out there and really bright people," he said. "Being in position to work with the best and brightest is something that you just have to do."
Along with the 15,700 employees in Texas, the company has thousands of employees in Asia and Europe. Templeton led this international organization to generate $13.7 billion in revenue last year, ranking number 200 on the Fortune 500 list. He explained, "there are a lot of bright, energetic passionate people around the world. Helping them pursue those dreams is something in our best interest."
One dream he has been encouraging and actively supporting over the years has been research in analog technology, which accounted for $6.4 billion of Texas Instruments' profits last year. Templeton has demonstrated a thorough understanding of his company's product, burgeoning technology and how it will work on the market. This discernment stems predominantly from two factors: he is an electrical engineer himself and he gained an intimate knowledge of his business over the years.
At Union College in New York, Templeton studied electrical engineering. Upon graduation, Templeton joined the semiconductor business of Texas Instruments. He worked his way up the ranks to become the president of that division in the mid-1990s. From 1996 to 2004, along with being the president of their semiconductor business, Templeton was executive vice president of Texas Instruments. He largely planned the company's focus on signal processing with semiconductors and is credited with guiding the operation.
He was appointed CEO and president in 2004. In this position he focused the company's attention on analog and embedded processing. He also detected smartphone growth markets and restructured the company in order to profit from them.
He increased the size of the company's sales and applications engineering team.
He has been an active proponent of university research & development for Texas Instruments. "It lets universities do research in areas like nanotechnology that may have no commercial application for 10 years," he explained.
He topped the Institutional Investor's Best Semiconductor CEOs in America list three years in a row: 2007, 2008 and 2009.
According to the Form 14A proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Templeton received a total compensation of $13.6 million in 2011. His annual salary of $990,087, profit sharing of $78,118, bonus of $2.7 million and equity earnings of $9.8 million constitute his total takeaway.
Templeton has been on Texas Instruments' board of directors since 2003. Templeton is on the board of the Semiconductor Industry Association and the board of directors of Catalyst. He is also a Southern Methodist University and Southwestern Medical Foundation trustee, as well as a member of the Dallas CEO Roundtable and the Business Roundtable.