Nanosolar announced it has named Geoff Tate as CEO. Tate is the former CEO of Rambus, Inc. and former senior vice president and corporate officer of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Tate served as CEO of Rambus, which specializes in the invention and design of high-speed chip interfaces, from 1990 through 2005. Prior to Rambus, Tate served in multiple general management roles at AMD over the course of 10 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from University of Alberta and an MBA from Harvard University.

“Geoff is a dedicated, hard-working executive with a successful track record developing great technologies into winning businesses,” said Erik Straser, Nanosolar board member and general partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures. “For example, under Geoff’s leadership, Rambus developed and commercialized a 500MHz interface, which at the time was 5-10 times faster than competitive alternatives. We are confident that Geoff will be a terrific addition to Nanosolar as we bring our thin film CIGS (copper indium gallium selenium) solar panels to market.”

Brian Sager, founder, board member and vice president corporate development, added, “We have market-leading customers, strategic investors, a strong balance sheet, and groundbreaking technology that has the potential to enable the lowest cost solar panels in the industry. Our highest priority under Geoff’s leadership will be to meet our customer commitments and help make our customers successful.”