US chipmaker Intel has named Pat Gelsinger as its new chief executive officer replacing Bob Swan who will step down as the company’s top executive effective February 15.
Intel announced on Wednesday (January 13) that its board of directors has appointed the 40-year technology industry leader Pat Gelsinger as its new chief executive officer after being VMWare’s CEO for the past decade. Gelsinger will also join the Intel board of directors upon assuming the role.
As a result of the announcement, Intel shares rose 7% in mid-day trading while VMWare’s stock was down by about 7%, CNBC reported.
Swan was named CEO of the top US chipmaker in January 2019 after serving as interim CEO for seven months. He also previously served as the chipmaker’s chief financial officer.
The two-year stint of Swan as CEO was a difficult one as the company struggled in losing market share to competitors like AMD, Samsung, and TSMC in various market segments and has faced manufacturing delays for some of its flagship chips.
Back in July, Intel announced the delay in releasing its 7-nanometer PC chip giving its rival AMD a headway into the PC chip market.
Another blow to its market share was Apple’s announcement in November that it will use its own proprietary chips in producing its Mac computers, breaking a 15-year partnership with Intel for its chip supplies.
A letter to the Intel Board was also floated by investment firm Third Point, calling on the company chairman to hire an investment adviser to explore “strategic alternatives” aimed at regaining market share from competitors.
The Sta. Clara, California-based company is slated to report its fourth-quarter financial status on January 21 as well as disclose the latest updates on its 7-nanometer chip technology.
As compared to Swan’s financial expertise, Gelsinger is a highly respected CEO and industry veteran with more than four decades of technology and leadership experience.
He also spent 30 years working at Intel where he began his career-capping his previous tenure as Intel’s first chief technology officer by driving the creation of key industry technologies such as USB and Wi-Fi. He was also the architect of the original 80486 processor, led 14 different microprocessor programs, and played key roles in the Core and Xeon families.
“Pat is a proven technology leader with a distinguished track record of innovation, talent development, and deep knowledge of Intel. He will continue a values-based cultural leadership approach with a hyper-focus on operational execution,” said Omar Ishrak, independent chairman of the Intel board.
“After careful consideration, the board concluded that now is the right time to make this leadership change to draw on Pat’s technology and engineering expertise during this critical period of transformation at Intel. The board is confident that Pat, together with the rest of the leadership team, will ensure strong execution of Intel’s strategy to build on its product leadership and take advantage of the significant opportunities ahead as it continues to transform from a CPU to a multi-architecture XPU company.”
Gelsinger upon receiving news of his appointment said:
“I am thrilled to rejoin and lead Intel forward at this important time for the company, our industry and our nation. Having begun my career at Intel and learned at the feet of Grove, Noyce and Moore, it’s my privilege and honor to return in this leadership capacity. I have tremendous regard for the company’s rich history and powerful technologies that have created the world’s digital infrastructure.”
“I believe Intel has significant potential to continue to reshape the future of technology and look forward to working with the incredibly talented global Intel team to accelerate innovation and create value for our customers and shareholders.”
“The board and I deeply appreciate Bob Swan for his leadership and significant contributions through this period of transformation for Intel,” continued Ishrak. “Under his leadership, Intel has made significant progress on its strategy to transform into a multi-architecture XPU company to capitalize on market shifts and extend Intel’s reach into fast-growing markets. Bob has also been instrumental in reenergizing the company’s culture to drive better execution of our product and innovation roadmap. He leaves Intel in a strong strategic and financial position, and we thank him for his ongoing guidance as he works with Pat to ensure the leadership transition is seamless.”
Meanwhile, outgoing Intel CEO Swan said his goal over the past two years was to position Intel for a new era of distributed intelligence, improving execution to strengthen our core CPU franchise and extending our reach to accelerate growth.
“With significant progress made across those priorities, we’re now at the right juncture to make this transition to the next leader of Intel. I am fully supportive of the board’s selection of Pat and have great confidence that, under his leadership and the rest of the management team, Intel will continue to lead the market as one of the world’s most influential technology companies,” Swan said.
During his stint as CEO of VMware since 2012, Gelsinger significantly transformed the company into a recognized global leader in cloud infrastructure, enterprise mobility, and cybersecurity, almost tripling the company’s annual revenues.
Prior to joining VMware, Gelsinger was president and chief operating officer of EMC Information Infrastructure Products at EMC, overseeing engineering and operations for information storage, data computing, backup and recovery, RSA security, and enterprise solutions.
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