Sports were also significant in McNealy's childhood. He established early interests in hockey and golf, which he pursued into adulthood; McNealy was rated the best CEO golfer by Golf Digest in 2002, and he played hockey into his forties. McNealy began skiing at age nine and continued through college. He participated in college cross-country and ski mountaineering competitions while attending Stanford University. After graduating in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in engineering, he returned to school to obtain a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford in 1977. In between studies, he coached ice hockey at the collegiate level. After graduating from Stanford, McNealy worked for three years at Sun Microsystems before being appointed president of Intel Corporation in 1998. He led the company through the merger with AMD that created one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers. He retired as chairman and chief executive officer in 2006 but remained involved with the company as a director until 2010. During his tenure at Intel, McNealy made major contributions to the development of the personal computer industry. Under his leadership, the company launched the "Intel Inside" branding scheme that promoted the use of its products in PCs. This campaign is credited with making Intel America's number one hardware supplier during the 1990s.