Leadership

Gary Dickerson was named president of Applied Materials, Inc. in June 2012. He is responsible for the day-to-day operation and performance of the company’s four business units: the Silicon Systems Group, Energy and Environmental Solutions, Display and Applied Global Services.

Mr. Dickerson has more than 30 years of semiconductor industry experience, recently as the chief executive officer of Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc., which was acquired by Applied Materials in 2011. Under his leadership Varian delivered record revenue and profits while consistently achieving the highest industry rankings for customer satisfaction.

Prior to Varian, Mr. Dickerson spent 18 years at KLA-Tencor Corporation where he held a variety of operations and product development roles before being appointed chief operating officer (COO) in 1999 and then president and COO in 2002. Mr. Dickerson started his semiconductor career in manufacturing and engineering management at General Motors’ Delco Electronics Division and AT&T Technologies.

Mr. Dickerson holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering management from the University of Missouri, Rolla, and an MBA degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Dr. Randhir Thakur is executive vice president and general manager of the Silicon Systems Group at Applied Materials, Inc., which comprises the company’s entire portfolio of semiconductor manufacturing systems. In this role, Dr. Thakur is responsible for strengthening the company’s leadership in its core wafer fabrication equipment markets.

He previously was senior vice president and general manager of the Display and SunFab Solar Group from December 2008 to September 2009, where he led the business offering manufacturing systems for flat panel displays, and the company’s thin film solar products for producing large size solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. He previously was general manager of Strategic Operations from May 2008 to December 2008.

Dr. Thakur rejoined Applied Materials in May 2008 from SanDisk Corporation, the world’s largest supplier of innovative flash memory data storage products, where he served as executive vice president of Technology and Fab Operations and was responsible for the company’s NAND flash memory roadmap, design, development, and fab operations. He also served as head of SanDisk’s worldwide operations, responsible for the company’s NAND flash and back end manufacturing footprint, end-to-end supply chain management, corporate quality, corporate procurement, assembly and packaging, product and test engineering, planning and sales operations and cost reduction activities.

From 2000 to 2005, he held variety of executive roles within various semiconductor product groups at Applied Materials, including group vice president and general manager for Front End Products.

Prior to joining Applied Materials in 2000, Dr. Thakur served as chief technology officer and general manager at Steag Electronic Systems, and vice president of Research Development and Technology at AG Associates, and held various technical leadership positions at Micron Technology.

Dr. Thakur holds more than 275 patents and has published more than 200 papers. He received a bachelor of science degree with honors in electronics and telecommunications engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, India. He received a master of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

As senior vice president of Global Human Resources for Applied Materials, Mary Humiston is enabling the organization, culture and talent necessary for the company to maintain its industry leadership now and in the future. Humiston and her team are executing business-critical talent attraction and retention strategies to drive employee engagement and enable Applied’s businesses to best support their customers. Under her leadership, her team is delivering innovative new tools, technology and metrics for strategic workforce management and to enhance the manager and employee experience.

During her career, Humiston has led a number of HR functions in global high technology organizations. She joined Applied in June 2008 and has led the Global HR function since June 2009. She previously was vice president of HR at Honeywell International and held executive positions with PeoplePC (now Earthlink), Gap Inc. and GE.

Humiston has received several industry honors while at Applied, including the “Most Powerful and Influential Women of California” Award from the California Diversity Council, the “HR Top 10 Breakaway Leader Award” from Evanta, and Silicon Valley Business Journal's "2011 Women of Influence" Award. Under her leadership, Applied was recognized among Computerworld's "100 Best Places to Work in Information Technology" for three consecutive years.

Humiston is from upstate New York, and has lived in both Asia and Europe. She earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Siena College, and an MBA degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). She serves on the board of directors for Second Harvest Food Bank of Northern California.

Charlie Pappis is group vice president and general manager of Applied Global Services (AGS), Applied Materials’ service business supporting customers in the semiconductor, display and solar industries. In this role, Mr. Pappis leads an organization that develops and delivers a broad portfolio of products and services that enhance nanomanufacturing efficiencies to enable Applied’s customers to achieve the highest returns from their factories. Mr. Pappis has been with AGS since 2005 serving in a variety of executive management roles.

Mr. Pappis is an expert in the field of product and customer support, with more than 25 years of experience. He first joined Applied in 1986 as a process engineer for the Company’s Etch division, and has since held various management positions, including several major account general manager positions between 1998 and 2005.

Mr. Pappis received a bachelor of science degree in materials science from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1983, and attended the Stanford/AEA Executive MBA program in 1994.