Intel's Foundry Chief Runs For The Hills

IFS now has its third boss in as many years...

In a surprise announcement, Intel yesterday informed us that their foundry division had a new leader, effective immediately, and that Stuart Pann, in the role just over one year, would retire at the end of May, i.e. in two weeks time:

Intel Corporation today announced the appointment of Kevin O’Buckley as senior vice president and general manager of Foundry Services, the customer service and ecosystem operations division of Intel Foundry. O’Buckley starts today and becomes a member of Intel’s executive leadership team reporting to CEO Pat Gelsinger. He succeeds Stuart Pann, who will retire from Intel after 35 years of service at the end of May and remain an adviser to support a seamless transition.

On the surface it may seem that Stuart Pann’s retirement after 35 years of service and, presumably approaching sixty five years of age, is just the natural order of things. In our opinion, this is not the case. We see here red flags aplenty. Here’s why.