Cerence, an AI automotive company, has selected Brian Krzanich as its new CEO and is getting absolutely roasted for it. Brian Krzanich is of course a former CEO of Intel who did a… bad job to put it nicely.
Brian arbitrarily fired 10% of Intel’s workforce seemingly to boost margins, spent billions on stock buybacks instead of investing in Intel’s capabilities, and of course under his tenure Intel lost the process lead to TSMC (TSMC started 7nm, Intel had to delay 10nm in 2017 to 2018). Intel’s money and time were squandered by Krzanich. You can firmly set part of the blame for Intel’s current troubles and endless firings at Krzanich’s feet.
Cerence’s post about Krzanich got so many comments roasting him they actually disabled the comment section on the post.
Ultimately I will say it’s pretty sad. How would you feel if you did such a bad job that years and years later you’d get your butt roasted when you’re moving to a new job? Pretty bad I imagine. Though he probably deserves to feel bad. He did contribute to the fall of a formerly massive company and hurt the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.
“a seasoned executive with a track record of success at global public organizations.” – Cerence
What does that even mean? They basically said “he ran a business”. No duh. But let’s just ignore Cerence’s inane post and talk some more about Krzanich.
This is a man who, after having a workplace relationship which is against Intel policy, got to leave Intel with millions $40+ million instead of being fired like he should have been. As a leader you’re supposed to uphold the values of your organization, you’re supposed to lead by example, and Brian did not do that. Does he deserve $40 million? No. Does any CEO deserve $40 million, especially after violating company policy? Also no.
Oh and let’s not forget about this gem about Brian Krzanich’s stock sales in 2018…
Intel’s CEO reportedly sold shares after the company already knew about massive security flaws
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sold off a large chunk of his stake in the company last year — after the chipmaker was already aware of serious security flaws in its computer processors, according to multiple reports.
The chipmaker did not immediately respond to CNBC’s emailed request for comments sent outside U.S. office hours.
Other outlets have reported an Intel spokeswoman said Krzanich’s decision to sell the shares was unrelated to the security vulnerability disclosed this week.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in late November, Krzanich acquired and sold 644,135 shares at a weighted average price of $44.05 by exercising his options. Those options let him purchase the shares at prices between $12.985 and $26.795, significantly lower than where Intel was trading at the time.
Krzanich scheduled to sell Intel shares before ever telling the public about a serious security vulnerability. That’s nice. Really leading by example and upholding values again. I do not understand how he was allowed to be CEO for such a long time. The writing was on the wall.
Cerence and Brian Krzanich deserve to get roasted.