Pat Gelsinger is retiring after more than 40 years with the company, including almost four years as head of the chipmaker. Effective December 1, Helsinger will step down from both his position and his membership on the board of directors. The board of directors has now established a search committee to “diligently and expeditiously” search for a new CEO. In the meantime, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, the next CEO of Intel Products, and David Zinsner, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will serve as interim co-chairs of the company-wide board.
While Gelsinger has held previous positions at Intel, he most recently spent more than a decade in leadership roles at EMC and VMWare. In 2021, he returned to Intel to replace Bob Swan, who served as CEO for just over two years. “As a leader, Pat helped launch and revitalize technology manufacturing by investing in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing while working tirelessly to drive innovation across the company,” said Frank Gourie, who will serve as interim executive chairman during the transition. “While we have made significant progress in restoring manufacturing competitiveness and building the capacity to become a world-class foundry, we know we have more work to do at the company and are committed to restoring investor confidence.”
Helsinger led Intel at a tumultuous time for the company. At the end of 2022, for example, Intel laid off about 20 percent of its workforce in some divisions. This year alone, Intel failed quality tests and announced that it would lay off another 15,000 people – or 15 percent of its workforce – amid a $10 billion cost-cutting plan. According to Bloomberg, these failures caused the company’s board to lose confidence in Helsinger and he was offered either retirement or to be pushed out, which explains his very sudden departure.
