Andy Grove obituary

Computer engineer who turned around Intel when he became chief executive

Andy Grove, who has died aged 79, drove Intel to dominate the global market for the microprocessors used in modern computers. Along the way he transformed himself from a techno-geek into a management guru before becoming - after Time magazine made him its Man of the Year in 1997 - a figurehead and mentor for the rest of Silicon Valley. Time called him the "person most responsible for the amazing growth in the power and innovative potential of microchips".

Grove was Intel's first employee when the company was founded in 1968, and was responsible for getting the firm out of the memory chip business - where it was being beaten by the Japanese - and into microprocessors. But when he eventually became chief executive in 1987, Intel's annual sales had fallen for four straight years to $1.3bn, it was closing factories, laying off thousands of staff, and running at a loss - "heading for bankruptcy" in the words of Richard Tedlow, Grove's biographer.

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