Intel's board gets industry-focused as three directors will not seek re-election — badly needed shift to deeper tech experience

Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.
(Image credit: Intel)

Intel has announced that three members of its 14-person board of directors will not seek reelection at the 2025 annual meeting on May 5, reducing the board to 11, as observed by Reuters. Two out of three directors come from the healthcare industry, and their departure marks the board's shift to become a more high-tech industry-focused one, which may be a good thing for Lip-Bu Tan, Intel's new chief executive. 

The departing directors are Dr. Omar Ishrak, who formerly led Medtronic and stepped down as Intel's chair in early 2023; Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, a former University of Pennsylvania professor in population health and equity; and Dr. Tsu-Jae King Liu, a UC Berkeley engineering dean focused on microelectronics. Their exit follows the recent addition of Eric Meurice, ex-CEO of ASML, and Steve Sanghi, interim chief of Microchip Technology, in December. 

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Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • dalek1234
    Only three of them? I would expect all fourteen.
    Reply
  • rgd1101
    why did they have healthcare professionals in the first place?
    Reply
  • rgd1101
    abufrejoval said:
    Because they buy a lot of Intel hardware?
    Having your customers on-board probably didn't seem like a bad idea.
    In a normal mature industry, even less so.

    But...
    they don't need to be on the board. just a contact for the sales department
    Reply
  • thestryker
    rgd1101 said:
    why did they have healthcare professionals in the first place?
    The assumption by industry folks is that they were likely proxies for large investor groups. The board makeup has been a problem for well over a decade.

    edit: just for emphasis, and the pre-paywall bit is more than sufficient https://www.fabricatedknowledge.com/p/the-death-of-intel-when-boards-fail
    Reply
  • Reverend_Clint
    When I was there we had to explain that SO-Dimm won't work on desktop boards because the people in charge had non-tech degrees from Bangalore.
    Reply
  • Reverend_Clint
    Why on earth would Intel use cheap Chinese adaptors for engineering samples? No I'm saying they had people in charge of programs with no tech background. They constantly screwed up simple things like DDR4 vs DDR5. Or H vs U vs N skus of Alder Lake.
    Reply
  • nogaard777
    Oh so NOW the board wants to focus on technology? Would have been nice if they'd realized that years ago when they hired Pat to refocus on the product.

    Everyone wants to blame everything on Pat but he performed a near miracle bringing IFS from well behind TSMC to parity in a few short years and they re-retired him just before it starts getting turned into products. Now when Pat's fruits start to ripen someone else will get credit because the board doesn't understand how long the product cycle is in this business. The only real mistake Pat made was he should have started cutting the fat from day 1. Intel was already flailing and it would have softened the landing a lot more. Lisa Su didn't turn AMD around in 6 months either.

    This is a perfect example of why I was saying they didn't need to replace Pat, they needed to replace the board that isn't technology focused so much as investor focused. That's what got Intel where it is to begin with and if the suits aren't on board the CEO can only do so much.
    Reply
  • chipperlet
    How bizarre is it that people think that the so-called non-tech directors (I guess electrical engineering isn't tech) are responsible for Intel's failures yet Frank Yeary's been there longer than anyone else? 7 CEOs after Frank joined the board--Intel trading almost exactly where it was 10 years ago. Coincidence? Good luck Lip Bu and the new "tech" focused board members!
    Reply
  • beyondlogic
    rgd1101 said:
    why did they have healthcare professionals in the first place?

    because there idiots to the highest bidder now that the ship is sinking there running
    Reply