Intel appoints Brian Krzanich as sixth CEO

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Intel’s Brian Krzanich will assume duties as its next chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding Paul Otellini, who had announced in November last year that he would be retiring. Intel said Krzanich will assume his new role at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on May 16.

Krzanich has worked as Intel’s chief operating officer since January 2012, and has been with the company since 1982. He will become the company’s sixth CEO. Intel said that its board of directors had unanimously elected Krzanich as CEO. The company has followed its tradition of electing CEOs from within. The board of directors has also elected Renée James as President of Intel. Intel said she would also be assuming her new role on May 16, joining Krzanich in Intel’s executive office.

James has also been Chairman of Intel’s software subsidiaries—Havok, McAfee and Wind River. She also currently serves on the board of directors of Vodafone Group Plc and VMware Inc. and was Chief of Staff for former Intel CEO, Andy Grove.

Gets a new CEO



Ottelini, 62, was the fifth CEO of the company, stepping into the post in the second quarter of 2005.

As chief operating officer, Krzanich led Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group, Intel Custom Foundry, NAND Solutions group, Human Resources, Information Technology and Intel’s China strategy.

Krzanich has worked his way up from his role as a process engineer at a plant in New Mexico in 1982, when he first joined Intel. Subsequently, he held plant and manufacturing manager roles at multiple Intel factories. He has also been responsible for the implementation of the 0.13-micron logic process technology across Intel's global factory network. Krzanich is also involved in advancing the industry's transition to lower cost 450mm wafer manufacturing through the Global 450 Consortium as well as leading Intel's investment in lithography supplier ASML.

Intel was accustomed to being king of the personal computer market, particularly through its historic 'Wintel' alliance with Microsoft Corp., which led to breathtakingly high profit margins and an 80 percent market share. But in the fast-growing and cut-throat mobile world, the company is struggling. Its market share is far less than that of Qualcomm, Samsung, ARM and others in the mobile CPU space. Krzanich will have to drive the company with a mobile-focused strategy to gain a foothold in the $85-million mobile-chip market, almost 90 percent of which uses chips made by way of technology from ARM Holdings.

The company's fourth-generation processor family, codenamed Haswell, is set to launch on June 3. Intel says that the 22nm manufacturing process used for the fabrication of Haswell chips will let it deliver better performance while consuming less power than its current Ivy Bridge family of processors. Haswell will certainly help Intel's efforts to capture more of the mobile microprocessor market, but it remains to be seen how effectively Krzanich helps Intel leverage it.
 
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