As President Leaves, Intel's Chief Undertakes a Broad Consolidation

The president of Intel is moving on, and the chief executive appears to be using the occasion for a sweeping reorganization of his company, the world's largest maker of semiconductors.

Renée James said in a memo to Intel employees Tuesday that she was leaving "in order to pursue an external CEO role." She was named Intel's president in 2013, at the same time that Brian Krzanich became chief executive.

"When Brian and I were appointed to our current roles, I knew then that being the leader of a company was something that I desired as part of my own leadership journey," she said in the memo. "Now is the right time for me to take that next step."

She will stay at Intel through year's end. Laura Anderson, an Intel spokeswoman, said James "is seeking a role," but has not secured a new job. James lives in Portland, Oregon, near a major Intel facility, and keeps a residence close to the Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

Krzanich does not plan to fill the president's job, Anderson said. The position has traditionally been closely associated with an executive hoping to ascend to the chief executive's position, and the appointment of James, who had been seeking the chief job alongside Krzanich, was unusual for Intel.

"She always talked a good game of supporting Brian and sharing executive roles, but it may not have played out the way she hoped," said Mark Hung, a semiconductor analyst with Gartner. "Intel hasn't had a separate president before and it's not sure they needed one."

James' responsibilities included work with chips for data centers, the fastest-growing of Intel's major business lines, and software, which is considered important for Intel's future but has shown relatively modest growth.

Through a spokesman, James declined a request for an interview.

In a separate memo, Krzanich said he was consolidating some of Intel's financial operations, like venture capital and mergers and acquisitions. Mike Bell, a former Apple executive who ran Intel's unsuccessful moves into mobile devices, and more recently was running its wearable technology business, is retiring. Hermann Eul, another relatively recent hire who was working in mobile, is also leaving.

In 2014, Intel announced it was merging its mobile communications group with client computing, its huge business in chips for personal computers. "The transition is now complete," Krzanich said in his memo.

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