Chip maker giant Intel Corp. (INTC) announced Thursday the promotion of Chief Operating Officer Brian Krzanich as the sixth chief executive officer, succeeding Paul Otellini, who retires as an officer and director. Otellini is stepping down after nearly 40 years of service at the company, including eight years at its helm.
The company also elected Renee James, head of Intel's software business, to be the new president to succeed Otellini. She began her career with Intel through its acquisition of Bell Technologies.
The Santa Clara, California-based company had revealed in mid-November 2012 that Otellini will retire on May 16 at the company's annual stockholders' meeting. At that time, Krzanich and James were among three senior leaders who were promoted to the position of executive vice president.
"After a thorough and deliberate selection process, the board of directors is delighted that Krzanich will lead Intel as we define and invent the next generation of technology that will shape the future of computing," Chairman Andy Bryant said.
The company noted that Krzanich was unanimously elected as the new CEO after it considered internal and external candidates since November 2012.
Krzanich has progressed through a series of technical and leadership roles at Intel, most recently serving as the COO since January 2012. Prior to becoming COO, Krzanich held senior leadership positions within Intel's manufacturing organization. He began his career at Intel in 1982 in New Mexico as a process engineer.
During Otellini's tenure, Intel transformed operations and the cost-structure for long-term growth, grew the network of cloud-based computing built on Intel products, and delivered the first smartphones as well as tablets for sale with Intel chips inside.
Otellini became Intel's fifth CEO in May 2005, succeeding Craig Barrett. He previously served as Intel's president and chief operating officer since 2002, when he was also elected to Intel's board of directors.
Since joining Intel in 1974, Otellini has managed several Intel businesses, including its PC and server microprocessor division and the global sales and marketing organization. Otellini also serves on the board of directors of Google Inc. (GOOG).
Intel is the world's largest supplier of microprocessors, the brains of personal computers, with about 80 percent of the global market share. However, the company has recently been seeing weaker than expected demand for chips as customers reduce inventory and sales of personal computers slow amid a challenging macroeconomic environment.
In Thursday's regular trading session, INTC is currently trading at $24.00, down $0.01 or 0.02% on a volume of 14.02 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $19.23 to $29.27.
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