3 Intel board members to retire as company focuses on turnaround

Three Intel board members will not stand for reelection at its annual meeting this year, the company said in a regulatory filing, as newly appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan tries to implement a strategy to revive the struggling chipmaker. 

The board will have 11 members after the three exits. 

The members retiring are Omar Ishrak, former CEO of medical device maker Medtronic; Tsu-Jae King Liu, a dean at the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley; and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, a former professor of population health and health equity at the University of Pennsylvania, according to a Reuters report.

Ishrak had joined the board in March 2017 and served as its chair from January 2020 to January 2023. Tsu-Jae had been an Intel board member since July 2016. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey had been part of the board since March 2018.

In December, following the ouster of former CEO Pat Gelsinger, Intel appointed Eric Meurice, former CEO of chipmaking equipment provider ASML, and Steve Sanghi, interim CEO of Microchip Technology, to the board.

“We are committed to having the right mix of skills, qualifications and technical expertise on the Board,” Chairperson Frank Yeary said in a filing.  

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Tan said he was equally focussed on Intel’s product business and contract chip manufacturing business.

 “We will remain focused on executing this plan to reduce our operating expenses and capital expenditures, simplify our portfolio and eliminate organizational complexity,” Tan said.  

Tan, a chip industry veteran, became CEO in March amid one of the most difficult phases in the history of the chipmaker. Not only has Intel lost its lead in process manufacturing to Taiwan’s TSMC, it has also failed to catch up in the booming AI sector, where Nvidia has left the competition behind.