Successful Refugees and Immigrants Leading the Way, Part 7: Semiconductor Pioneer Dr. Andy Grove

Andrew Stephen Grove, also known as Andy Grove, was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, on September 2, 1936. During internal unrest within Hungary in 1956, Andy, then age 20, fled to Austria. In 1957, he arrived in New York City, USA, along with 1,715 Hungarian refugees on a ship. He had next to no money and knew little English. Although without means in the US, Andy did possess a love of learning.

He gained a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the City College of New York in 1960. Then, he continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley to earn a PhD in the field in 1963. Shortly after, Dr. Grove worked at Fairchild Semiconductor as a researcher. In 1968, his colleagues, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, left Fairchild to co-found Intel. From then on, the “Intel Trinity” - Drs. Grove, Noyce and Moore, began to drive the semiconductor wave in the world. Dr. Grove has been credited for Intel’s enormous success over the years, guiding it from a startup to one of the world’s premier semiconductor firms. Under Dr. Grove’s management, Intel’s annual revenues increased from US$1.9 billion to more than US$26 billion.

In 1997, he was selected as Time magazine’s Man of the Year. Andy was also an active philanthropist. He was on the board of directors of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a worldwide humanitarian relief organization. In 2010, he was honored as one of ten distinguished refugees at the IRC’s 2010 Freedom Award Dinner. Andy Grove’s career and life are a testimony to the wisdom of nations maintaining welcoming immigration policies. As a Hungarian-born refugee, he has helped prove that immigrants can make a large contribution to humanity and leave a lasting mark on our world. A big salute to all difference-making migrants, and Andy Grove in particular, for showing us the enormous potential of those who settle in new lands.