A Mexican teenager who speaks no English and ends up graduating from a Texas high school as valedictorian is a pretty good story. A better story is that young man growing up to become one of the leading executives in the American technology sector. Dr. Hector Ruiz finished at the top of his high school class and went on to eventually receive a Ph.D. from Rice University. He began work with Texas Instruments and then moved to Motorola where he rose to become one of that company's top executives. In 2000, he joined Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., one of the world's leading semiconductor companies and he now serves as that company's Chief Executive Officer.

As part of an effort to help the underprivileged, Dr. Ruiz announced at the 2004 World Economic Forum in Davos AMD's 50x15 initiative, a commitment to empower 50% of the world's population with basic Internet access by the year 2015.