Phil Hester

Senior Vice President of R&D

As senior vice president of R&D at National Instruments, Phil Hester provides strategic guidance to the 1,500 global hardware and software development team members to help continue the company’s track record of delivering innovative products and services.

Throughout his 30-year career, Hester has distinguished himself as a technology leader holding several key engineering and management positions. Most recently he served as the senior vice president and chief technology officer at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Prior to AMD, Hester spent more than two decades working in a variety of leadership and management roles at IBM, including chief technology officer and vice president of systems and technology for the PC division and general manager of the systems and technology division, where he oversaw 1,500 employees globally. Hester is also an entrepreneur, having founded a company that develops and manufactures easy-to-deploy server and storage technology for OEMs.

He holds more than 10 patents relating to microprocessor architecture, memory controllers, and microprocessor testability. He has also served on the University of Texas Engineering Foundation Advisory Council and is a director for ON Semiconductor.

Hester received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering with highest honors and master’s degree in engineering, both from The University of Texas at Austin, where he was recognized as the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Young Alumnus in 1991.