Applied Materials names Akash Palkhiwala to Board of Directors

Applied Materials has appointed Akash Palkhiwala to its board of directors. Palkhiwala currently serves as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Qualcomm, bringing extensive financial and operational leadership experience within the computing and technology industry. He has also been appointed to Applied Materials' board Audit Committee.

Tom Iannotti, chairman of the board at Applied Materials, said Palkhiwala is a terrific addition to the board, pointing to his track record in finance leadership and decades of experience in the semiconductor industry as strengths that will benefit the board and support the company's next phase of growth.

Palkhiwala has served as Qualcomm's CFO since 2019 and took on the additional role of COO in 2024, overseeing the company's finance organization, global go-to-market teams, semiconductor operations, and IT. He has held various finance leadership roles at Qualcomm since joining the company in 2001. Before Qualcomm, he worked as a private equity analyst at KeyBank.

Palkhiwala holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from L.D. College of Engineering in India and an MBA from the University of Maryland.