Brian Krzanich: Intel CEO

Brian Krzanich was born on May 9, 1960 in Santa Clara County, California. Of Croatian heritage, Brian obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from San Jose State University. He also holds a patent for semiconductor processing. Brian’s career has not taken him to faraway foreign lands. In fact he has been connected all his life with one company based in the state where he was born. Yet if you get to work for computer chip powerhouse Intel, there’s really no need to be moving far from California anyways, especially if one day you get promoted to the top post.

Brian joined Intel in 1982 in New Mexico as an engineer. Since then he has held a number of senior leadership roles within the manufacturing organization of Intel. Brian has been noted for his open-minded approach to problem solving and listening to customer’s needs which has extended the company’s product and technology leadership and created billions of dollars in value for the company.

He led a broad transformation in 2006 of Intel’s factories and supply chain, improving factory velocity by more than 60 percent and doubling customer responsiveness. He was eventually promoted to COO in January 2012.  Brian finally got the top post when he was promoted to CEO of Intel Corporation and elected a member of the board of directors on May 16 2013. 

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.