Semiconductor giant Intel continues to shake up its senior leadership since Lip-Bu Tan took the helm as CEO in March. The company announced on Monday that Michelle Johnston Holthaus will depart after more than three decades. Johnston Holthaus was most recently chief executive officer of Intel products and will remain a strategic adviser.
Intel also announced the creation of a central engineering group that will build a new custom silicon business for outside customers. This group will be helmed by Srinivasan “Srini” Iyengar, who joined Intel from Cadence Design Systems in July.
The company also said that Kevok Kechichian, formerly of ARM, will join as head of its data center group. Jim Johnson has been appointed senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s client computing group. Naga Chandrasekaran, the chief technology and operations officer of Intel Foundry, is also taking on an expanded role.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated that with Srini leading Central Engineering, the company is aligning innovation and execution more tightly in service to customers. He emphasized that Intel is laser-focused on delivering world-class products and empowering engineering teams to move faster and execute with excellence.
This news comes just a few weeks after the U.S. government announced a plan to convert existing government grants into a 10% stake in Intel. The deal was structured to penalize Intel if the company dropped below 50% ownership of its foundry unit.
These were not the only leadership changes at Intel this year. Tan’s appointment as CEO in March was a notable event. In July, the company announced it had hired four new people for sales and engineering roles, including Greg Ernst to serve as Intel’s chief revenue officer. Intel declined to comment.