It is Paul Otellini’s last day at work today, as he steps down from the role of CEO to spend more time with his family and nurturing tulips in his garden.
Otellini (62) has worked for Intel since 1974 and still serves on the board of Google.
I have met him many times, the first at a Comdex in Las Vegas in an interview with two other journalists. An Italian guy asked him a question, and Otellini gave the simple answer “no”. The guy tried again and this drew an interesting response from the Intel man. He shook his head slowly three or four times while tick-ticking quietly to himself. Then he looked up at the journalist and said: “I have already given you the answer to that question”.
The son of a butcher, Otellini has clearly demonstrated time and time again that he takes no prisoners. Rather like Andy Grove, his one time mentor at Intel, Otellini prefers blunt straightforward and intelligent questions rather than questions that go round the Wrekin.
He is succeeded as CEO at Intel by Brian Krzanich.
