Infineon CEO Ulrich Schumacher has quit the company. No reason has been given for the abrupt departure.

Fast it certainly was. Schumacher resigned yesterday with immediate effect during a board meeting. The board accepted his resignation straight away.

Schumacher, 45, took over Infineon's helm when it was still a division of German industrial combine Siemens. His rise through the Siemens chip operation was rapid. He joined the company in 1986 to run the Equipment/Test Engineering operation of the company's Components Group. Two years later, he was named Assistant to the CEO of the Semiconductor Group, a role that put him in charge of the division's strategic planning and gave him oversight of special projects.

In 1991, he was put in charge of the Semiconductor Group's memory division marketing operation, before becoming General Manager of the Semiconductor Group's Standard IC division in 1992, a position he held until 1996, when - ten years after joining the company - he was named President and CEO, Semiconductor Group.

He took a place on the Group's board in 1998, and the following year guided it through its IPO and the name change, which took place on 1 April 1999, the day before his 41st birthday. Under Schumacher, Infineon reported its first profit in more than two years, during its fourth quarter which ended on 30 September 2003. 2004 was looking likely to follow that trend.

Schumacher is married and has three children. ®

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