Intel Corporation today announced the appointment of Dr. Naga Chandrasekaran as chief global operations officer, executive vice president and general manager of Intel Foundry Manufacturing and Supply Chain organization. Chandrasekaran joins Intel from Micron, where he served as senior vice president for Technology Development. He will be a member of Intel’s executive leadership team and report to CEO Pat Gelsinger.
Chandrasekaran succeeds Keyvan Esfarjani, who has decided to retire from Intel after nearly 30 years of dedicated service. Esfarjani’s distinguished career set a strong foundation for Intel Foundry, and his leadership in global supply chain resilience and manufacturing excellence has helped to position Intel’s business for long-term success. He will remain with Intel through the end of the year to ensure a seamless transition.
Chandrasekaran joins Intel on Aug. 12, and he will be responsible for Intel Foundry’s worldwide manufacturing operations, including Fab Sort Manufacturing, Assembly Test Manufacturing, strategic planning for Intel Foundry, corporate quality assurance and supply chain.
“Naga is a highly accomplished executive whose deep semiconductor manufacturing and technology development expertise will be a tremendous addition to our team,” Gelsinger said. “As we continue to build a globally resilient semiconductor supply chain and create the world’s first systems foundry for the AI era, Naga’s leadership will help us to accelerate our progress and capitalize on the significant long-term growth opportunities ahead.”
During more than 20 years at Micron, Chandrasekaran served in various senior leadership roles. Most recently, he led Micron’s global technology development and engineering efforts related to the scaling of current memory technologies, advanced packaging technology and emerging technology solutions. Previously, he served as Micron’s senior vice president of Process R&D and Operations. His experience spans the breadth of semiconductor manufacturing and R&D, including process and equipment development, device technology, mask technology and more.
Chandrasekaran earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras; both a master’s and a doctorate degree in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma State University; a master’s degree in information and data science from the University of California, Berkeley; and dual executive MBAs from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA-Anderson School of Management) and the National University of Singapore.
The Intel Foundry business encompasses Intel’s technology development, global manufacturing, and foundry customer service and ecosystem operations. It brings together all the critical components that fabless customers need to design and manufacture chips for a new era of AI-driven computing.
Dr. Chandrasekaran will work closely with the other Intel Foundry leaders: Dr. Ann Kelleher, executive vice president and general manager, Foundry Technology Development; Kevin O’Buckley, senior vice president and general manager of Foundry Services; and Lorenzo Flores, chief financial officer of Intel Foundry. Together, this team brings a breadth of foundry business and technical leadership experience that will help Intel achieve its goal of creating the first systems foundry for the AI era.
