Mark Pinto to leave Applied Materials; EES and Display divisions merged

Continued restructuring at Applied Materials as it struggles to resize its solar business has led to senior executives Mark Pinto and Tom Edman leaving the company as its EES and Display divisions are merged.

Applied Materials has hired veteran semiconductor equipment executive Ali Salehpour from KLA-Tencor to head up the merged divisions.

Mike Splinter, Chairman and CEO of Applied Materials said:  "We are optimising our worldwide organisation to more effectively and efficiently address the dynamic markets in which we operate. By bringing together these two business units, we believe we can better support our customers' roadmaps and advance our technology for large-area applications."

Pinto, Executive Vice President and General Manager of EES, and Edman, group vice president and general manager of Display, were said to helping with the leadership transition before both leaving the company.