The chairman of Intel’s board tried to convince CEO Paul Otellini to stay, according to an interview in Barron’s.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini’s decision to retire likely caught a lot of people off-guard, one of them being the company’s own chairman of the board.
Speaking with Barron’s yesterday, Intel board chairman Andy Bryant acknowledged that he and Otellini had talked in the past about transitioning the CEO job. But Otellini surprised him last week with the decision to retire next May.
“I did everything I can think of to buy myself another year [of Otellini’s leaderhip],” Bryan said. “We were targeting further out for this.”
In the day before today’s declaration, Intel touted Otellini’s achievements during his 8 years as CEO. Over that reach, the company unveiled the ultrabook to the pc marketplace, created processors for smartphones and tablets, greater the power potency of Intel chips, and increased thru industry partnerships and acquisitions.
But mobile is still one area where Intel has yet to make a strong mark. Despite the company’s new chips for mobile devices, ARM processors still rule the mobile world.
And according to Bryan, mobile was a key factor in Otellini’s decision to step aside.
“After nearly 40 years at Intel, and the Intel CEO task for eight years, that is a actually arduous task, he felt it used to be time to move to the next technology of leadership,” Bryant informed Barron’s. “We do have massive problems in front people, moving to the tablet and get in touch with markets, and he used to be in a position to allow the next technology lead the ones battles.”
Bryant plugged Intel’s progress in the mobile arena with ultrabooks and chips for smartphones and tablets. And in terms of manufacturing, Intel is ahead of Samsung and other players, he said. But he clearly feels the company has to use its technical prowess to build its mobile presence.
“I would expect Samsung and others to continue to make progress, and you never assume people you are competing with will stop the technological advance,” he said. “But we expect to take advantage of the increasing gap in technology we’ve established.”
And now the corporate faces another job — hiring a replacement for Otellini.
Admitting that “we’re just now initially of a procedure we didn’t be expecting to have to behavior,” Bryant mentioned that Intel will search each internally and externally for the following CEO.
He did roll out the names of five senior executives at Intel who he felt are important to run the company. Those include Renee James, the head of software; Brian Krzanich, the top of producing; Stacy Smith, Intel’s chief financial officer; Dadi Perlmutter, head of Intel’s cellular efforts; and Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital.
But finding the right person to succeed Otellini, run all of Intel, and carve out a greater niche in the mobile market, all before next May, is likely to prove a challenge.