The No. 2 man at chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. is leaving the Newport Beach company to find a job running a chip company on his own.
President Matt Rhodes, Conexant’s president since 2003, plans to leave by June, the company said Monday.
Rhodes resigned as president and is working with Conexant during the transition. Dwight Decker, the company’s chief executive and chairman, assumed Rhodes’ duties.
Rhodes said he doesn’t have a job lined up but hopes to have a position nailed down by the end of the year.
“In the second half of the year I will likely be able to find something that’s appropriate for my goals,” he said.
Rhodes said he would like to stay in Southern California to accommodate his family. But he said he isn’t putting any parameters on where he might go.
“I do have a goal to be CEO of a company,” Rhodes said. “I would probably get that shot outside sooner than I would inside … This company has a great CEO.”
Decker will be at Conexant for the “foreseeable future,” spokeswoman Gwen Carlson said.
“Matt’s been wanting to be CEO of Conexant for several years,” Carlson said. “Matt wants to be CEO of a company sooner rather than later.”
Decker stepped down as chief executive in February 2004 after Conexant bought Red Bank, N.J.-based GlobespanVirata Inc., a maker of chips for digital subscriber line modems.
As part of the deal, Globespan chief executive Armando Geday took over running Conexant and the company’s headquarters moved to New Jersey.
Decker became chairman.
But the arrangement didn’t produce profits.
The board asked Decker to come back in late 2004 to push through a turnaround. The effort pulled the company out of the red by September, beating the company’s own timeline for returning to profitability.
Rhodes said he stepped down because he didn’t want to split his time between looking for a CEO job and his duties as president.
“I will build up my network,” he said. “I haven’t spent any time on that.”
There are no plans to find a new president, Carlson said.
