In late August, DailyTech reported that Henri Richard would leave his position as executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for AMD on September 8. Richard had been with the company since 2002 and saw the Sunnyvale, CA-based company go through good times (Opteron successes) and bad times (post ATI acquisition difficulties).

Today, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that another AMD executive is jumping ship. Rick Hegberg, AMD's VP of worldwide sales, is leaving the company although a company representative declined to indicate when the resignation would take place or his prospects afterwards.

Hegberg was a former ATI employee and came to AMD after the 2006 acquisition. Hegberg is also the second former ATI executive to leave AMD -- former ATI CEO Dave Orton left in July.

It's interesting that three key executives are abandoning the company prior to the release of Barcelona. AMD's native quad-core processor family is just around the corner and the company has already announced pricing for the new chips.