Intel told its manufacturing employees on Wednesday that it had chosen Navid Shahriari to eventually take over from Ann Kelleher as head of process technology development, reports Oregon Live. Kelleher remains in her role for now and the announcements highlights Intel's focus on ensuring a seamless leadership transition. Yet, the revelation of the succession plan is meant to emphasize that Intel is serious about its manufacturing capacities and has a long-term vision.
Ann Kelleher joined Intel in 1996 from academia. She served as fabs manager (in Ireland, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona) and general manager of the fab sort manufacturing till 2020, when she was appointed to lead the development of Intel's process technologies. Without any doubt, she has vast experience with Intel's manufacturing operations. Her latest accomplishment is the execution of Pat Gelsinger's five nodes in four years plan. The most critical part of that journey — the Intel 18A process technology — is set to enter mass production next year.
Navid Shahriari began his career at Intel in 1989. Currently, he is responsible for design engineering from Arizona, a vital process that bridges the gap between chip architecture, process technology, and mass production. He will shift to fabrication process development as part of the succession plan. However, it remains to be seen what formal role he will take and whether he will relocate from Arizona to Oregon, where Intel's development labs and fabs are. But the bigger question is when Shahriari will succeed Kelleher, though it is likely that this will happen several years down the road.
"Ann is not going anywhere," a statement by Intel published by Oregon Live reads. Given the importance of technology development (TD), we have a robust long-term succession planning process. Navid is taking on new responsibilities to be prepared to eventually take over the TD role. This reflects long-term succession planning while Ann remains firmly in her role."
The transition announcement comes amid pressure on Intel's chief executive Pat Gelsinger to split manufacturing operations into a separate company, something the company's long-time rival AMD did in 2008 – 2009. Most recently, a group of former board of directors even called the U.S. government to use CHIPS & Science Act money assigned to Intel through grants and loans to use those nearly $20 billion as leverage to force Intel to split into two companies. Yet, announcing the succession plan can be considered a clear statement about Pat Gelsinger's vision for Intel.
