Intel CEO Brian Krzanich Resigns over consensual relationship with employee

Intel Corporation has announced the resignation of Brian Krzanich as CEO and a member of the board of directors. The CEO was forced out from his post following an investigation into a "consensual relationship with an Intel employee. The board at Intel has named Chief Financial Officer Robert Swan interim chief executive officer, effective immediately.

The shares of Intel have fallen roughly 2% since the news of CEO stepping down. As per the information shared by Intel on its news portal, the officials were recently informed that Mr. Krzanich had a past consensual relationship with an Intel employee. An ongoing investigation by internal and external counsel has confirmed a violation of Intel's non-fraternization policy, which applies to all managers. Given the expectation that all employees will respect Intel's values and adhere to the company's code of conduct, the board has accepted Mr. Krzanich's resignation.

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"The board believes strongly in Intel's strategy and we are confident in Bob Swan's ability to lead the company as we conduct a robust search for our next CEO. Bob has been instrumental to the development and execution of Intel's strategy, and we know the company will continue to smoothly execute. We appreciate Brian's many contributions to Intel," said Intel Chairman Andy Bryant.

To recall, Krzanich began working as a process engineer at Intel's chip factory in New Mexico in 1982. He became manager of a fabrication plant in Chandler, Arizona, in 1996, and later supervised assembly and testing facilities. He was named Intel CEO in May 2013. Krzanich was responsible for expanding Intel's offerings beyond central processing units (CPUs) and into other technologies, including 5G wireless networks, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, drones, etc. during his tenure.

After Krzanich, Swan as an interim CEO will manage operations in close collaboration with Intel's senior leadership team. Swan has been Intel's CFO since October 2016 and leads the global finance, IT and corporate strategy organizations. He previously spent nine years as CFO of eBay Inc. Earlier, he was CFO of Electronic Data Systems Corp. and TRW Inc. He has also served as CEO of Webvan Group Inc.

Swan added, "Intel's transformation to a data-centric company is well underway and our team is producing great products, excellent growth, and outstanding financial results. I look forward to Intel continuing to win in the marketplace."

The board has a robust succession planning process in place and has begun a search for a permanent CEO, including both internal and external candidates. The board will retain a leading executive search firm to assist in the process.

Intel reports that the company expects to deliver a record second quarter, with revenues of approximately $16.9 billion and non-GAAP EPS of approximately $0.99. Intel will provide full second-quarter results and an updated outlook for the full year on the second-quarter earnings call on July 26.

Notably, Intel recently talked about celebrating 50 Years of Innovation. Intel's first product was the 64-bit 3101 static random access memory (more commonly known as RAM), which was released in April 1969. The official 50th anniversary of Intel is on July 18th, 2018.

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