Intel Products Chief Michelle Holthaus To Depart After 30 Years Amid Leadership Overhaul
Intel is bidding farewell to its former interim co-CEO and current chief executive of Intel Products, Michelle Johnston Holhaus, who has been a stalwart of the company for over 30 years. Her upcoming departure marks one of several key leadership changes Intel is making to its client, data center, and foundry divisions as CEO Lip-Bu Tan puts into motion a new era for the chip maker.
"Throughout her incredible career, Michelle has transformed major businesses, built high-performing teams and worked to delight our customers," Tan said. "She has made a lasting impact on our company and inspired so many of us with her leadership. We are grateful for all Michelle has given Intel and wish her the best."
An accomplished and major asset for Intel who has held numerous roles over the years, Holthaus has been recognized not once but three times by CRN magazine as one of the Top 100 Women of the Channel. Over the next few months, she'll stay on as a strategic advisor to help the transition.
Another major change is the appointment of Kevork Kechichian as executive vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group (DCG). He'll be in charge of navigating Intel's data center business across cloud and enterprise, including the entire Xeon product stack.
While new to Intel, Kechichian is an industry veteran with more than 30 years of service under his belt, most recently as the executive vice president of engineering at Arm.
"Kevork brings a powerful combination of strategic vision, technical depth, and operational rigor that will help us seize growth opportunities across the data center market," Tan said.
Intel's Client Computing Group (CCG) is also getting a permanent boss—Jim Johnson, who sheds his interim tag and is now officially appointed as the senior vice president and general manager of the division. Johnson has been with Intel for four decades, having previously served in various engineering and leadership roles.
In addition, Intel announced it is forming a new Central Engineering Group that will be led by Srinivasan (Srini) Iyengar. He joined Intel in June from Tan's old stomping ground, Cadence Design Systems, where Iyengar led the firm's global silicon engineering.
"With Srini leading Central Engineering, we’re aligning innovation and execution more tightly in service to customers," Tan said. "We are laser-focused on delivering world-class products and empowering our engineering teams to move faster and execute with excellence. Kevork, Jim, and Srini are exceptional leaders whose deep technical acumen and industry relationships will be instrumental as we continue building a new Intel."
Finally, Intel announced an expanded role for Naga Chandrasekaran, executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer of Intel Foundry. His expanded role now includes Foundry Services, which Intel says will create a more integrated structure spanning technology development, manufacturing, and go-to-market. Chandrasekaran left Micron last year to join Intel and has decades of experiences in semiconductor manufacturing and R&D.
