Dive Brief:
- Intel appointed veteran tech executive Cynthia Stoddard as its SVP and CIO, effective Dec. 1. Stoddard previously held the same title at Adobe for nearly a decade.
- Reporting directly to CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Stoddard will be tasked with leading the company's IT organization, with a focus on modernizing systems at the 57-year-old chipmaker as it pursues an aggressive turnaround plan.
- "The CIO role has become increasingly strategic for Intel as we modernize our legacy systems, strengthen our operational backbone, and build deeper partnerships with AI platform companies," said Tan, who praised Stoddard's experience with large-scale digital transformation in the Tuesday announcement.
Dive Insight:
Intel is navigating a rebuilding year, an effort kicked off by the March appointment of Tan as CEO. Shortly thereafter, the executive rolled out a plan to significantly reshape the business, halving the company's management structure in pursuit of more AI innovation.
As part of the recomposition, Tan said the company planned to trim headcount by 15%. Early signs of a turnaround began to show in the chipmaker's Q3 earnings report, which saw Intel return to profitability for the first time in nearly two years. Revenues rose 3% year over year, reaching $13.7 billion.
The company's incoming CIO, an IT veteran, will focus on modernizing systems, improving data integration, accelerating decision-making and pushing its internal AI transformation forward, according to the announcement. Stoddard's stint at Adobe will prove vital in her new role, according to Forrester Senior Analyst Alvin Nguyen.
"She has extensive modernization experience and transitioning Adobe's infrastructure to support a cloud services model was impressive, especially in how quickly this was accomplished," Nguyen said in an email.
The company recently created a central group to unify horizontal engineering functions across foundational intellectual property development, test chip design, electronic design automation tools and design platforms for semiconductor manufacturing, Tan told investors during an earnings call last month.
"It appears she will be tasked with turning Intel's IT into a competitive advantage, critically important after downsizing and restructuring their organization," said Nguyen.
Cross-vendor partnering, an accelerating trend in the sector, is another strategy Intel is relying on. The company inked a significant deal with Nvidia to develop custom AI PC and server processors in September. As part of the deal, Nvidia agreed to purchase $5 billion in Intel stock, the two companies said.
