Computerworld New Zealand: Intel shuffles ranks, President Renée James to exit

The executive suite at Intel is getting a major shake-up today.

Renée James, the second most senior executive at chip giant Intel, is stepping down to look for a CEO job elsewhere, the company said. James plans to stay at Intel until January to help with the transition.

James is one of the key faces behind the growth of Intel since her joining for the role of President back in May 2013 alongside CEO Brian Krzanich.

Her departure was announced with other leadership changes that show Krzanich is putting his stamp on the company and parting ways with deputies of his predecessor, Paul Otellini. “Now is the right time for me to take that next step”, James said in a letter to Intel employees.

Intel also announced the retirement of Arvind Sodhani, the president of Intel Capital, and a 35-year veteran of the company.

“We are aligning our leadership structure to continue to become more efficient in order to deliver the benefits of our strategy even faster than before”.

“We fully support her in this decision”, Krzanich said in a statement. Wendell Brooks, president of Mergers and Acquisitions, will assume that role. Over the past 28 years, Renée has contributed immeasurably to Intel.

Intel Communication and Devices Group General Manager Aicha Evans has been elevated to the company’s Management Committee.

Josh Walden, General Manager of Intel’s New Technology Group, now leads all product and research teams that create and deploy new technology categories, such as interactive computing devices, perceptual computing and wearable devices.

Hermann Eul, who ran mobile processor operations until Intel merged its PC and mobile units will also leave the company when his contract expires in 2016.

Last month, Intel agreed to buy reprogrammable-chip maker Altera for about $16.7 billion in an effort to expand its server and IoT capabilities.

Shares of Intel Corp. rose 60 cents, or 2 percent, to $30.78 in morning trading Thursday.