Intel executive's exit was sudden
The executive shakeup at Intel that saw vice president Pat Gelsinger leave for EMC appears to have been quite sudden.
Former Intel vice president Pat Gelsinger
(Credit: Intel )An Intel blog dated September 13 shows clearly that Gelsinger was scheduled to appear in the No.2 speaker slot at the Intel Developer Forum--which started on September 22--behind CEO Paul Otellini. The entry in the agenda states: "Tuesday: Keynotes from Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini, IDF veteran and senior VP Pat Gelsinger."
The announcement of Gelsinger's departure came on September 14.
In the final IDF agenda, Gelsinger was removed and his speaking slot went to Sean Maloney, who, prior to IDF, was promoted, along with David "Dadi" Perlmutter, to co-manage the massive Intel Architecture Group. Maloney, an executive vice president, had been Intel's sales chief, and many observers see him as the odds-on favorite to be Intel's next chief executive. (Current CEO Paul Otellini, though, is likely to be in his post for some time to come.)
Gelsinger, now 48, had been considered to be one of the contenders for the CEO slot and he had had made it clear publicly that he wanted to be president of Intel. He was a leading figure in the development of some of Intel's most popular chips, including the 80486 microprocessor and the Pentium Pro, the latter of which brought Intel into the lucrative workstation and server markets.
The 30-year Intel veteran was Intel's chief technology officer but, in a sideways move, became co-general manager of Intel Corporation's Digital Enterprise Group--his most recent title.
Gelsinger is also an author who has written about balancing work, family, and faith.
Brooke Crothers has served as an editor at large at CNET News, an editor at Dow Jones' Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, and a senior editor at InfoWorld. His CNET blog covers chip technology and computer systems, and how they define the computing experience. He also contributes to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. Follow Brooke on Twitter @mbrookec. 
