In a strategic leadership shake-up, Intel appoints new heads in sales and engineering, signaling a deeper push into AI silicon, hyperscale data centers, and customer-centric innovation.
Intel has announced a major leadership realignment aimed at strengthening customer engagement and doubling down on engineering-driven growth. The tech giant named Greg Ernst as its new Chief Revenue Officer and introduced three high-profile additions to its engineering leadership team: Srinivasan Iyengar, Jean-Didier Allegrucci, and Shailendra Desai.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan emphasized that these appointments reflect Intel’s intent to evolve into a more engineering-centric company while accelerating innovation for customers. “We see significant opportunities ahead to strengthen our product offerings and meet the changing needs of our customers,” he said. “These seasoned leaders bring deep expertise and are key to positioning Intel for long-term growth.”
Greg Ernst, a 20-year Intel veteran with deep roots in sales and marketing, will now head global revenue operations. Having led Intel’s Sales and Marketing Group (SMG) for the Americas and more recently for global markets, Ernst is seen as a strategic bridge between customer needs and Intel’s product roadmap.
Srinivasan Iyengar, formerly with Cadence Design Systems, joins as Senior Vice President and Fellow. He will lead a newly created Customer Engineering Center of Excellence, focusing on silicon solutions tailored to specific workloads—especially in hyperscale data centers.
Jean-Didier Allegrucci, who previously led AI silicon efforts at Rain AI and spent nearly two decades at Apple, steps in as Vice President of AI SoC Engineering. He will manage the development of multiple AI system-on-chip (SoC) platforms crucial to Intel’s AI ambitions.
Shailendra Desai, a former Google executive with a background in mobile and AI SoC design, takes over as Vice President of AI Fabric and Networking. Desai’s mission includes architecting future-ready SoC platforms for Intel’s AI GPU offerings. He is also known for founding Provino Technologies, a silicon startup acquired by Google.
Both Allegrucci and Desai will report to Intel CTO and AI chief Sachin Katti, underscoring Intel’s strategic push into next-gen AI hardware and infrastructure.These appointments mark a bold step in Intel’s transformation journey as it competes more aggressively in AI, data center, and custom silicon segments.
