Intel Gives Interim CEO Robert Swan the Permanent Position

Robert Swan, who has been at the helm of Intel for the last seven months as the interim CEO has now been given the permanent position. The announcement was made on January 31 by Intel that its board of directors has agreed to name Robert (Bob) Swan as Intel’s seventh CEO. Swan, 58, joined Intel as a chief financial officer in October 2016. He has also been elected to Intel’s board of directors.

Now with Robert’s promotion, Intel will be needing a new CFO to replace him and until they find a suitable candidate, the Vice President of Finance and Director of Intel’s Corporate Planning and Reporting, Todd Underwood, will work as the interim chief financial officer.

“As Intel continues to transform its business to capture more of a large and expanding opportunity that includes the data center, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving, while continuing to get value from the PC business, the board concluded after a thorough search that Bob is the right leader to drive Intel into its next era of growth,” said Chairman Andy Bryant. “The search committee conducted a comprehensive evaluation of a wide range of internal and external candidates to identify the right leader at this critical juncture in Intel’s evolution. We considered many outstanding executives and we concluded the best choice is Bob. Important in the board’s decision was the outstanding job Bob did as interim CEO for the past seven months, as reflected in Intel’s outstanding results in 2018. Bob’s performance, his knowledge of the business, his command of our growth strategy, and the respect he has earned from our customers, our owners, and his colleagues confirmed he is the right executive to lead Intel.”

“In my role as interim CEO, I’ve developed an even deeper understanding of Intel’s opportunities and challenges, our people and our customers,” Swan said. “When I was first named interim CEO, I was immediately focused on running the company and working with our customers. When the board approached me to take on the role permanently, I jumped at the chance to lead this special company. This is an exciting time for Intel: 2018 was an outstanding year and we are in the midst of transforming the company to pursue our biggest market opportunity ever. I’m honored to have the chance to continue working alongside our board, our leadership team, and our more than 107,000 superb employees as we take the company forward.”

The previous CEO, Brian Krzanich resigned last June due to the violation of the company’s non-fraternization policies because of his “past consensual relationship” with an employee.

Before joining Intel, Swan was the CFO of eBay from 2006 till 2015 and currently serves as a director there. He also served as an operating partner at venture capital firm, General Atlantic LLC which has investments in Airbnb, Uber, Snap, and Slack. He also served on the board of directors of Applied Materials.

Last year in June, Swan had told employees that he wasn’t interested in the job. Interestingly, now after the announcement, in an email to all employees, customers, and partners of Intel, he says that he “jumped at the opportunity” to remove “interim” from his title when he was approached by the board for the permanent position.

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