Intel Executive Shuffle

[Daniel Nenni]

Interesting news:

Renee James, Intel's president for the last two years, is leaving to "pursue an external CEO role." James has been Intel's second in-command behind CEO Brian Krzanich, and became responsible for overseeing manufacturing, software, security tech, and corporate strategy/planning as part of a 2013 reorg. She'll stay until January to help "transition the Executive Office."

Three other execs are also leaving: Arvind Sodhani, the head of Intel Capital (the company's VC arm) and a 35-year vet; Hermann Eul, until last fall the head of Intel's mobile processor ops; and Mike Bell, previously in charge of a Devices unit responsible for wearables.

Hermann is the mobile (SoFIA) guy from Infineon so maybe Intel IS getting out of mobile?

Also leaked, Intel Corp. reportedly plans to delay the launch of its advanced mainstream SoC “SoFIA” application processor with integrated 4G/LTE baseband to early 2016. This is the TSMC 28nm version. No update on the 14nm version of SoFIA.

 

[Pawan Fangaria]

Yes, this is the news of today. It's surprising about mobile processor and wearable executives leaving. Recently, Intel had formed a separate division for wearable market. There was lot of push to win the wearable market. What happened?

 

[Portland]

There are a lot of quacks out there. Didn't make yields at 16nm and no mobility or IOT. It would take something epic to make IOT work. Intel is a business not a charity.

They should of collaborated with Israel. There's the potential for oregon to stand on it's own but it takes work and a different attitude.

 

[hist78]

For serving as President of Intel just two years, is she forced out?

 

[cpuarchx]

This is further reflection of a shakeout as Intel continues to find a stable base for its business and get its operating costs realigned to a lower growth future. With the mobile product line consolidation after so far unsuccessful attempts to make a dent in this market, Hermann saw the writing on the wall. Mike Bell has been frustrated for some time, being more of a cowboy to the more conservative process oriented Intel management. He probably lost confidence that he could make a difference here and decided it was time for a change. Renee always seemed like a fish out of water in her role as president of a semiconductor company and recent management role over TMG, given a more software oriented background. She played an instrumental role in the acquisition of McAfee, and I suspect she may have had to take some responsibility for it not delivering on the bill of goods it was being pitched to Intel that it would deliver. With Paul no longer around to take some of the heat on that decision, I am guessing she was next.

 

[serend]

Mike Bell has the attention span of a tadpole and the strategic vision of a cricket. He has been selling his brusqueness for brilliance way too long, so long that even Intel board finally saw through the charade. Look at Bell's resume: his Intel tenure is just another punctuation in a long series of professional failures from Palm to Apple. Let's hope it's the last.