Intel’s Craig Barrett to Retire in May

Intel on Friday announced that Craig Barrett will retire in May from both his role as Chairman of the Board and also from the Board of Directors. Craig became the Chairman in May 2005 after leaving his CEO position, which is now in Paul Otellini’s hands. His CEO position lasted between 1998 – 2005, and if you think he’s simply a CEO to fell into his position, you’d be wrong. Craig has been with Intel since 1974, equating to a staggering 35 years with the company.

In the press release, Barrett noted that he was fortunate to work with such industry legends as Gordon Moore, Bob Noyce and Andy Grove, the former two who founded the company in 1968. From a geek’s perspective, that thought sounds like a dream. Craig has been around since the introduction of Intel’s simplest microprocessors. In 1974, the new-fangled processor at the time would have been the Intel 4040, a 0.5KHz chip that no doubt screamed through all the latest benchmarks at the time.

Craig will be replaced by Jane Shaw, who first joined Intel’s board in 1993 and previously worked as Chairman and CEO of a pharmaceutical company. From an end-user perspective, we never heard much from Craig to begin with, but his expertise and knowledge cannot be denied… that simply comes with working in such a technologically-advanced company for 35 years. I can’t help but imagine how cool it would have been to join such a company in 1974. Technology is exciting today, but things were so different then. It’s easy to take such things for granted today, that’s for sure. Good luck, Craig.

“Intel became the world’s largest and most successful semiconductor company in 1992 and has maintained that position ever since,” said Barrett. “I’m extremely proud to have helped achieve that accomplishment and to have the honor of working with tens of thousands of Intel employees who every day put their talents to use to make Intel one of the premier technology companies in the world. I have every confidence that Intel will continue this leadership under the direction of Paul Otellini and his management team.”