Richard Templeton

Richard Templeton Biography

Richard Templeton is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Texas Instruments. He became chairman of the board in April 2008, and president and chief executive officer in May 2004. He has served on the company’s board of directors since July 2003.

From April 2000 through April 2004, Templeton was chief operating officer of TI. He was executive vice president of the company and president of TI's Semiconductor business from June 1996 through April 2004.

Templeton is credited with helping to define and execute TI’s strategy to focus on semiconductors for signal processing. Operationally, he guided the company during this transformation. Later as CEO, he continued to reshape the company, focusing resources on growth opportunities in Analog and Embedded Processing while repositioning our Wireless business on growth areas in the smartphone market. Throughout this process, he has maintained the company’s strategic investments in R&D and manufacturing, while expanding the size of our sales and applications engineering team to better serve our customers.  Under his leadership, TI has emerged stronger, with better technological and product positions in each of these core businesses.

Templeton joined the company in 1980 after earning a bachelor’s of science degree in electrical engineering from Union College in New York. He spent his operational career in the company's Semiconductor business, beginning in sales and eventually becoming president of the entire business. 

He topped the list of Institutional Investor’s Best Semiconductor CEOs in America for three consecutive years from 2007 through 2009.

In addition to his TI duties, Templeton serves on the board of the Semiconductor Industry Association, the board of directors of Catalyst, and the board of trustees of Southern Methodist University and Southwestern Medical Foundation. He is also a member of the Business Roundtable and the Dallas CEO Roundtable.