Wales headquartered Semiconductor wafer and advanced materials company IQE announced the appointment of Americo Lemos as its new chief executive officer on Monday, starting on 10 January.

The AIM-traded firm said its decision to appoint Lemos followed an “extensive and rigorous” search process led by interim executive chairman Phil Smith.

It said that Lemos, with more than 20 years of managerial experience working with multinational technology companies, had the necessary skills to lead IQE into its next phase.

“The depth and breadth of Americo’s industry expertise make him the natural choice to take the business forward in its next stage of growth,” said Phil Smith.

“His appointment will enable us to build on our solid global industry foundations and market-leading positions, and take advantage of key structural drivers and opportunities arising with the proliferation of 5G and the internet of things.

“Americo is the ideal leader to take over from IQE’s founder Dr Drew Nelson, who I would like to thank for his years of passion and dedication to building the company to its current global leadership position.”

Americo Lemos was joining IQE from the executive team at GlobalFoundries, a New York-based semiconductor designer and manufacturer.

As the senior vice-president of business development for Asia-Pacific, and country president for China, Lemos had been responsible for driving GlobalFoundries’ efficiency and growth in those “critical” markets.

Before that, he held executive positions at a number of technology companies including Qualcomm and Intel, and had worked at Flextronics, Texas Instruments and Skyworks.

“I am hugely excited to be joining IQE, a business at the forefront of the UK’s high-tech manufacturing sector and one which I have long admired,” said Americo Lemos.

“I look forward to working with my new colleagues to ensure the business’s continued success and growth, and achieving our vision of being the best advanced semiconductor materials solutions company in the world.”

At 1110 GMT, shares in IQE were up 4.64% at 49.91p.