Gary Dickerson was named president of Applied Materials, Inc. in June 2012 and appointed chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors in September 2013. As the world’s #1 semiconductor and display equipment company, Applied is the leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world.

Recognized by multiple organizations as a top-performing CEO—including by Barron’s, Forbes and the Harvard Business Review—Mr. Dickerson is a long-time industry leader with more than 35 years of semiconductor experience and a strong track record of delivering profitable growth and gaining market share while achieving recognition for outstanding customer satisfaction.

Since becoming CEO in 2013, he has grown Applied’s revenue more than 3.5 times, achieving new levels of growth and setting records for profitability, while substantially investing in talent, creating new jobs and adding more than 8,500 new patents to the company’s portfolio of breakthrough innovations. Under his leadership, Applied is enabling a new industry playbook to advance technology and improve the power, performance, area-cost and time to market for customer roadmaps. The company is also leading the industry with a Net Zero 2040 playbook powered by collaboration, clean energy and innovation. Mr. Dickerson was recognized with the SEMI Sustainability Excellence Award for driving companies to adopt leading-edge sustainability practices and motivating the entire industry supply chain to follow suit.

In 2024, he was presented with the Public Service Star (Distinguished Friends of Singapore) award by Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore, for outstanding contributions to the economic growth of Singapore and his strong partnership with the region’s dynamic semiconductor industry.

Prior to Applied Materials, he was CEO of Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. for seven years, until its acquisition by Applied Materials in 2011, and spent 18 years at KLA-Tencor Corporation where he held a variety of operations and product development roles before serving as president and chief operating officer. He began 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.