Mike Burrows

About Mike Burrows

CTO-level executive with 25+ years of leadership in advanced graphics, gaming, and AI innovation. Proven record of delivering platform-defining technologies at AMD, Intel, and Microsoft. Scales global engineering orgs (600+), aligns cross-functional roadmaps, and builds technical vision across silicon, software, and ecosystem development. Renowned for turning strategy into execution, driving innovation pipelines, and shaping GPU and AI architectures for next-gen platforms. Trusted by technical teams, senior stakeholders, and board-level leadership alike. I build elite, high-performance teams that turn ambiguity into clarity and vision with data and tenacity. With decades of executive experience at Intel and Microsoft, I’ve led groundbreaking work in gaming, graphics, and advanced technology, always grounded in transparency, technical depth, and decisive action. I speak truth, delivering pragmatic solutions, and turning skepticism into strategic advantage.My leadership style is simple: lead from behind when things go well—amplifying the real creators—and step to the front when challenges arise. I value honesty, fast informed decisions, and have zero tolerance for toxicity. I’m passionate about mentoring and take pride in helping people grow into their full potential.Whether advancing GPU architecture, driving engine strategy, or deepening ISV partnerships, I bring technical insight and steady leadership to complex challenges. I’m always learning and evolving to stay at the forefront of innovation—and to help the teams I lead do the same.

Experience

1. Corporate Vice President

   AMD

   Mar 2022 — Present · Bellevue, WA, US

   Corporate Vice President - Advanced Graphics Program • Led AMD’s Advanced Graphics Program to define and deliver cutting-edge technologies in real-time graphics, neural rendering, and compute across team of 600+.• Defined AMD’s neural rendering leadership plan from MLSR to NeRF, educating execs and reinforcing vision with tangible POCs.• Created and Led AMD’s Architecture Review Board, composed of external CTOs and engineering thought leaders—an initiative that integrated developer and customer feedback directly into silicon and software roadmaps. This process yielded more relevant features, faster adoption, and significantly improved alignment between innovation and execution.• Delivered first-ever Stable Diffusion ML demo on Radeon GPU hardware, showcasing disproportionate performance over competing solutions. Showed 10x performance gains for external OSV partner to validate their software architectural direction.• Created key representative workload to drive Radeon hardware design changes—introducing FP16 atomics and optimal L2$ sizing, resulting in 25% uplift for neural rendering (MLP) during training/inference and Ray Tracing acceleration.• Built and aligned cross-org technology roadmap for and beyond, reinforcing aggressive, yet achievable, feature sets and strategic targets.• Created repository of peer-reviewed \'One Pager\' tech initiatives, driving 40+ whitepapers and POCs across divisions per year.• Championed DirectML capability comprehension and internal delivery response to match competitive positioning.• Initiated Nod.ai engagement; helped position company for acquisition to establish robust training/inference ML framework.• Generated process and delivery of detailed technical responses to industry announcements, cited as invaluable to business units.• Enabled Microsoft GDC demo for advanced Work Graphs draw node, showing 30–40% perf and 50–60% memory improvements vs ExecuteIndirect().

Education

• University of Staffordshire

  Computing Science, Formal Mathematics, Graphics, Real-time Microprocessor design

• University of Staffordshire

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Computer Science

Skills

• Android
• Computer Science
• C#
• Visual Studio
• Multithreading
• Device Drivers
• Cross-Platform Development
• Hlsl
• Direct3d
• Game Programming
• Programming
• Win32 Api
• Gpu
• Perforce
• Debugging
• Software Development
• Software Design
• Directx
• Gpgpu
• Video Games
• Opengl
• Xbox 360
• Shaders
• Computer Graphics
• Mobile Applications
• Software Engineering
• Lua
• Object Oriented Design
• Game Development
• Agile Methodologies
• C++