Intel’s Brian Krzanich Resigns, Bob Swan Takes Over As Interim CEO

The tech industry has had a very exciting past year, and in fact, I might even go as far to call it one of the most exciting years in tech – at least on the semiconductor front. Unfortunately for Intel, most of the excitement has been seen outside its walls, as the company continues to struggle to keep on top of its processor release cadence, with 10nm product still at least half a year off.

Intel’s outgoing CEO Brian Krzanich

In recent months, given Intel’s sudden struggles with 10nm, and its newfound competition in AMD, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s position seemed to be on shaky ground, and in total honestly, it wasn’t much of a surprise to receive an email to say that he resigned – Intel is in a rough position, and it needs to strike back hard. The company recently hired on architects Jim Keller and Raja Koduri, as well as marketing guru Chris Hook – all former AMD. With this renewed focus, a new CEO might make sense, given the company has seemingly struggled for as long as Krzanich was in charge.

Nonetheless, as easy as it is to jump to conclusions, Krzanich is departing Intel not because of missed targets or the renewed challenge of competing with AMD; instead, it’s because he “had a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee”. It seems a bit extreme (to me) to have to resign from your position simply because of a “consensual” relationship from the past, so I’m admittedly feeling a little skeptical. That said, I am in no way familiar with Intel’s employee guidelines or their strictness.

Intel’s interim CEO Bob Swan

The press release writes: “Given the expectation that all employees will respect Intel’s values and adhere to the company’s code of conduct, the board has accepted Mr. Krzanich’s resignation.” Speculation would make it seem like the incident occurred while Krzanich was CEO, as this issue should have really been caught when he stepped in as CEO in 2013. Nonetheless, he’s out, so Intel is about to embark on a new era.

In Krzanich’s place, Intel has temporarily put Bob Swan in the position of interim CEO. Intel is “confident in Bob Swan’s ability to lead the company as we conduct a robust search for our next CEO”, and now, the speculation can begin on who that should be. In the meantime, Swan seems like a good fit. He instills his own confidence about the future of Intel in the press release: “Intel’s transformation to a data-centric company is well under way and our team is producing great products, excellent growth and outstanding financial results. I look forward to Intel continuing to win in the marketplace.”