Intel Considers Qualcomm President And Another Exec As Next CEO: Report

Intel has added two current and former Qualcomm executives to its list of frontrunners for the company's vacant CEO role, according to a new report.

Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm's current president, and Anand Chandrasekher, a former Intel and Qualcomm executive, are now up for consideration as the successor to former Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, The Information reported Wednesday, citing a source briefed on the matter.

Intel, Qualcomm and Chandrasekher did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Amon and Chandrasekher, who left Qualcomm in May, have joined a list of external and internal Intel CEO candidates that includes current Intel executives Navin Shenoy and Venkata Murthy Renduchintala, as well as former Intel executives Diane Bryant, Renee James and Stacy Smith, The Information said. Pat Gelsinger, another former Intel executive who is now CEO of VMware and No. 1 of CRN's 2018 Top 100 Executives, is also under consideration but has already ruled out the move.

Bob Swan, Intel's chief financial officer and interim CEO, has reportedly told employees he is also not interested in taking the permanent role.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's CEO search is expected to take another three to four months, The Information reported, citing its source. The search began in late June after Krzanich's sudden resignation, which was prompted by the board's discovery that he previously had a relationship with an employee, a violation of the company's non-fraternization policy.

On the company's most recent earnings call last week, Swan said the Intel CEO search had no current timetable but that the board is "working with a sense of urgency."

The search for Intel's next CEO comes at a pivotal time for the company, which turned 50 in July and is facing stronger competition from AMD and other competitors in the data center and client side. The company has also delayed its next-generation, 10-nanometer processors to late next year, which is expected to give AMD an advantage next year with the release of the rival's 7nm chips.

The addition of Amon and Chandrasekher to Intel's list of frontrunners for CEO shows that the company is still considering a break in tradition by potentially recruiting from the outside for its top post. The company's six CEOs to date have all come from within the company.

Amon is a longtime Qualcomm veteran, having joined the company in 1995 as an engineer and becoming its president at the beginning of his year. Amon had worked alongside Renduchintala, Intel's chief engineering officer who was previously at Qualcomm for over a decade.

Chandrasekher, who had joined Qualcomm in 2012 from Intel, left the company in May as the company's server chip boss following reports that Qualcomm was considering exiting the data center business. Amon later said that while the company was making cuts in the division, Qualcomm intended to continue its work in the server space.