The chief executive at Wolfson Microelectronics, the Scottish audio chip maker, is stepping down and will be replaced by a multimedia expert from Motorola, the company said today.

Dave Shrigley is leaving “for personal family reasons” at the end of the year and will return to the US.

He will be replaced by Mike Hickey, the senior vice president and general manager of multimedia at Motorola, on January 1.

Mr Shrigley joined the Edinburgh-based Wolfson from California in November 2006, replacing David Milne, who founded the group in 1984.

It is the latest boardroom reshuffle at the company after Wolfson appointed Michael Ruettgers, former head of EMC, last November to take over as chairman and provide “a fresh, external perspective” to the board’s leadership.

Wolfson floated in 2003 but in the past year the company’s shares have lost more than half of their value. The group has been hit by blows, including the loss in March of a contract with Apple to supply parts to its iPod Touch and iPod Nano devices, which resulted in its shares slumping 26 per cent.

It continues to supply components for the iPhone.

Shares in Wolfson rose 4.5p, or 3.8 per cent, to 121.5p today after the announcement but are trading below the company’s record high of 530p in May 2006.

At the end of July, Wolfson reported a 27 per cent fall in first-half pre-tax profits to $9.1 million (£4.6 million), following its $6.5 million purchase of Oligon and Sonaptic.

Revenue in the first half rose 12 per cent to $100.3 million on the back of a 50 per cent increase in revenue from its handset parts, driven by growth in the smartphone market.

At the time, Mr Shrigley warned the economic slowdown was taking its toll. He said: “While we expect a third-quarter seasonal uptick in trading, the weaker macro environment is impacting our customer order patterns, leading us to be cautious in our guidance today.”

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