Leslie L. Vadász (born Vadász László; born September 12, 1936 in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

) is a Hungarian-

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, one of the founding members of

Intel Corporation Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series ...

Early life and education

In his hometown, Budapest, Vadász developed an early interest in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. After the

1956 Hungarian revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

, he emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

(1961) and attended the six-week Advanced Management Program (AMP) at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(1990).

Career

Vadász moved to the United States in 1961 first working at Transitron Corporation (1961-1964, R&D) and then at Fairchild Semiconductor International (1964-1968, R&D) where he helped develop the silicon gate process.

Robert Noyce Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He is also credited wit ...

, and Gordon Moore, his colleagues at Fairchild Semiconductor founded the

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

. When the company was founded, Vadász and the also Hungarian Gróf András ( Andrew Grove), who took him with him to the new company, they became the company's third and fourth (first non-owner) employees. Vadász, who used to be once the fourth employee of the world-renowned global semiconductor corporation, retired in 2003 as Executive Vice President of the company. Vadász was the head of the MOS design department where the first

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

, the Intel 4004 was developed and led the development of the first highly integrated dynamic RAM and first EPROM chips within the company. Vadász founded the Intel Capital venture capital firm in 1991, and remained president until he retired in 2003. Since its establishment, the strategic investment firm has paved the way for more than a thousand companies in more than thirty countries around the world. Following his retirement, he remained an Emeritus member of Intel's board of directors. When announcing Vadász's retirement in 2003, Intel CEO Craig Barrett said: " es Vadászis an engineering engineer who has a great sense of where the industry is headed and where we need to be to succeed. Intel's leadership in the semiconductor industry is largely due to Les Vadász' achievements. "

References

1936 births Living people Engineers from Budapest Hungarian electrical engineers Hungarian emigrants to the United States 21st-century American engineers American computer businesspeople American computer programmers American computer scientists McGill University Faculty of Engineering alumni 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-electrical-engineer-stub