Harry Wolin

IPhone issues aside, Wolin's experience with technology giants like Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Motorola Inc. grants him a rare panorama of what the trends have been and what they will be. He explained that the Austin picture has changed from one of independent entrepreneurs and small startups trying to get their piece of the pie to an era where those same small-business employees are migrating to bigger corporations.

"When I first got here, we were leading up to the Internet bubble. Everybody was doing all sorts of things. Dell was really booming—just over the top—and everybody was making money hand over fist," he recounted. "Now, a lot of the tech workers are going from the small organizations into the big ones—you know, the Dells, the IBMs, the Motorolas, the AMDs."

AMD is currently the world's second largest central processing unit (CPU manufacturer behind Intel Corporation and a leader in graphics processing units. Wolin joined the company in 2000 and headed the Technology Law Department where he dealt with intellectual property affairs as vice president. Prior to that, he worked at Motorola as vice president and director of legal affairs for the Semiconductor Products Sector, which later became Freescale Semiconductor Inc.

In his time with AMD, Wolin has helped see through the IBM/AMD process technology alliance, the acquiring of graphics card manufacturer ATI and the settlement of antitrust lawsuits with Intel that made the microprocessor market more equitable.

In 2008 he received the Magna Stella Award from the Texas General Counsel Forum for his innovative management, and is also a member of the state bars of Arizona and Texas.

Wolin, who has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Arizona, got started in the business after his first year of law school when he took a job with Motorola and entered into a program that trained law students with a technical background to be patent attorneys. He said that he never expected to be involved with a technology company—he never really had a passion for it as a child—but said he is continually captivated by the advances at AMD.

"It's complicated. It's intense stuff. I look at what the people do here every day, and it's truly amazing," he said. "They are working on the neatest stuff out there that anyone is working on."

Wolin explained that a growing Austin is the perfect place for fostering new innovations in the technology market. He spoke about The University of Texas as part of the reason for the growth and the continuing health of the area's technology market, as well as the state's pro-tech mentality.

"It's the combination of the startup culture as well as the big company presence," he said. "There's jobs for those people [from UT]. We also have the State of Texas that does a lot things to keep tech companies in place."

"They make it a good place to do business, some of the tax laws are favorable, and when you couple favorable government and favorable industry with a big university, you've got all the building blocks for a nice effort," he continued.

Austin might be a good fit for AMD, but AMD is also a good fit for Austin. It attracts small, up-and-coming businesses and creates almost 3,000 jobs locally.

The microchip manufacturer sponsors events such as Austin City Limits and South by Southwest and dedicated roughly 3,600 volunteer hours to the community in 2011.

Wolin serves on the Board of Governors for Lifeworks, which provides assistance to struggling families and youth with housing, finances and education.

After some stagnation in the job market over the past few years, Wolin forecasted that the current economy will, he hopes, allow AMD to again move forward with incubating more startups, investing venture capital and ultimately funding new technologies.

"The tech business in Austin is very different than it was when I first got here," he said. "And I think it's going to continue to change."

AMD accomplishments

• Acquired ATI, a graphics card manufacturer that is now leading the graphics processing unit market in performance
• Leader in hypertransport technology, which has been used in Apple and IBM computers
• Developed accelerated processing units that provide enhanced processing power and power efficiency for graphics cards
• Advances in disruptive server space
• Developed Athlon 64 processors, which was a significant leap in 64-bit computing
• Developed first dual core Opteron processor, an x86-based server CPU, on April 21, 2005
• Set world record for fastest overclocked CPU at 8.429 GHz
• IBM/AMD process technology alliance
• Won antitrust lawsuits against Intel Corporation that made the microprocessor market more equitable. Intel paid AMD $1.25 billion.

Source: www.amd.com