Paul S.Otellini: A Non-Engineer On Top

Paul S. Otellini is the former president and CEO of Intel, the world’s leading manufacturer of microprocessors for personal and business computing. In 1972 he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of San Francisco. Paul went on to finish his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley in 1974.

After receiving his MBA, Paul joined Intel. He has managed a number of the company’s businesses such as the PC and server microprocessor division and the global sales and marketing organization. A major promotion came in 2002 when Paul was elected to Intel’s board of directors and became the president and chief operating officer. He became the CEO in May 2005.

Paul was a departure from the norm since he was not a formally trained engineer. Among his achievements was his role in convincing Apple Inc. in the Apple-Intel transition.  Paul’s pay may be good but being CEO is a tough job. He oversaw the largest layoff in Intel’s history when 10,500 employees were laid-off in 2006. This was part of the effort to save $3 billion a year in cost by 2008.

Paul retired in May 2013 having been part of achieving times as well as painful adjustments.