Intel Board Shakeup As Members Confirm Retirement

Intel’s board of directors is heading for a shakeup, as the troubled chip giant seeks to plot its future direction under its new CEO.

A SEC filing revealed that three Intel board members are “retiring from the Board and will not stand for reelection at the Annual Meeting” (slated for 31 March 2025).

It comes after Intel had appointed chip veteran Lip-Bu Tan to succeed Pat Gelsinger as CEO, who had been ousted back in December, amid disputes over his long-running turnaround plan for the American chip giant.

Board shakeup

As part of the first name of change under Lip-Bu Tan has come the news of the board shakeup in the SEC filing by Intel chairman Frank D. Yeary.

“We are committed to having the right mix of skills, qualifications and technical expertise on the Board. In 2024 we added Eric Meurice, former President, CEO and chairman of ASML, and Steve Sanghi, chairman and interim CEO of Microchip, as independent directors.”

“Eric and Steve are highly respected and accomplished leaders in the semiconductor industry whose deep technical expertise, executive experience, and operational rigor make them great additions to the Intel Board — and they have had an immediate impact. We are also pleased to have Lip-Bu once again serving on the Board,” wrote Yeary.

“Omar Ishrak, Tsu-Jae King Liu, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey are retiring from the Board and will not stand for reelection at the Annual Meeting,” he added. “Omar, Tsu-Jae and Risa are accomplished leaders and long-standing board members who brought deep experience and expertise into the boardroom. On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank them for their service and their many contributions to Intel.”

Omar Ishrak had joined Intel’s board in March 2017, and served as the chair of the board from January 2020 to January 2023. Tsu-Jae King Liu had been a board member since July 2016, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey had been part of Intel’s board since March 2018.

Board expertise

There had been concern over the make up of the board, after Lip-Bu Tan had suddenly resigned from Intel’s board last August.

Lip-Bu Tan had resigned “effectively immediately” last August amid reports of differences with then CEO Gelsinger over what Tan considered Intel’s bloated workforce, risk-averse culture, and lagging artificial intelligence strategy.

Tan’s exit had reportedly has left a vacuum of chip-industry technical and business acumen on Intel’s board, which was said to be mostly populated by leaders in academia and finance, and former senior executives from the medical, tech and aerospace industries.

But since that time Intel’s board has seen new appointments, and now three retirements. The latest move will shrink the size of the board to 11, raising the prospect of more appointments.

The retiring board members Omar Ishrak had been a former CEO of medical device maker Medtronic.

Meanwhile Tsu-Jae King Liu had been a dean at the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey had been a former professor of population health and health equity at the University of Pennsylvania.