Jerry D. Neal is Co-Founder and former Executive Vice President of Strategic Development for RF Micro Devices, from which he retired in 2012.
As a co-founder of RF Micro Devices, he worked to secure the initial funding for the new venture. During his twenty-one year career at RF Micro his primary focus was in the area of strategic development to ensure the continuing growth of the company.
He plays an active role in both the business and education communities, having served on the board of directors at semiconductor companies including Jazz Semiconductor and Peregrine Semiconductor, as well as the Board of Visitors at the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. He regularly speaks to civic organizations and universities desiring to hear the RF Micro Devices story and he has a program for educating and entertaining audiences by portraying the father of wireless communications, Guglielmo Marconi.
In addition to professional associations, he and his wife, Linda, are involved in many philanthropic activities. Their primary endowment is for research in the Infectious Disease Department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the hospital where he also serves as a member of the ALSAC Leadership Council. Closer to home, he serves on the Board of Directors of Victory Junction, a year-round medical camp established in Randleman, North Carolina, where children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses and their families can enjoy medically sound and physically safe camping experiences. In addition to the Neal Fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Linda and Jerry Neal have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for children’s charities over the years.
In 2001 he was awarded the Doctor of Business Management Degree from Southern Wesleyan University.
In addition to Fire in the Belly, he also authored Built on a Rock: A Memoir of Faith, Family and Place (2003) with Jerry Bledsoe.