Exclusive: Intel’s Ex-Global Channel Chief, EMEA Leader To Exit Amid SMG Changes

Amid the changes Intel Chief Revenue Officer Greg Ernst discussed in a memo seen by CRN this week, the Sales and Marketing Group is creating a new ‘staff-level organization’ that will support ‘sales enablement in areas like AI, new tools’ and other initiatives.

Intel is losing former Global Channel Chief John Kalvin along with the leader of its Europe, Middle East and Africa commercial business as the chipmaker’s Sales and Marketing Group undergoes changes to boost its AI sales efforts among other things, CRN has learned.

In a Tuesday memo seen by CRN, Intel Chief Revenue Officer Greg Ernst said that Kalvin (pictured) is leaving along with the European business leader, Dermot Hargaden, and another Sales and Marketing Group (SMG) executive, Urvish Thakkar, to “take new paths outside of Intel.”

Ernst also announced organizational changes to Intel’s China business to “ensure we empower our engineers tackle Intel’s most complex challenges with greater efficiency.” He echoed media reports from September that Alan Wang, a longtime Intel employee in China, is succeeding 31-year company veteran Rui Wang as chair of the Intel China subsidiary.

Intel declined to comment on Friday.

SMG Creates New Team To Support AI Sales Efforts

Amid the changes Ernst discussed for the SMG organization is the creation of a new “staff-level organization focused on Sales Strategy, Operations and Enablement.”

Ernst, an Intel sales veteran who became SMG’s leader in June, said that the organization will combine the Global Operations and Support team—which has been led by Kalvin—and the Strategy and Development Office to support “sales enablement in areas like AI, new tools, centralizing customer data and improving execution across our ecosystem.”

The chief revenue officer said he plans to announce an interim leader for the newly formed group soon while SMG searches for someone to fill the role permanently.

Ernst also said that Gilberto Vargas, a 23-year Intel veteran, has been named the permanent leader of SMG’s Business Management Group. With a focus on Intel’s go-to-market and operational functions, Vargas’ responsibilities include supply, pricing, new product introduction, game plan coordination and regional operations, the memo said.

Kalvin To ‘Retire’ After Leading Intel’s Channel Through Crucial Period

Kalvin—who Ernst said “has decided to retire from Intel” in the first quarter of next year—served as Intel’s vice president and general manager of Global Partners and Support from late 2020 to early 2024, a crucial period for Intel’s channel efforts as it consolidated disparate partner programs into the Intel Partner Alliance program.

“From operations to our global partner ecosystem, we want to thank John for his leadership and many contributions to SMG and Intel over the past 27 years,” Ernst wrote.

Early last year, he moved out of the role to lead Go To Market Operations, which was a new organization within SMG at the time that was “dedicated to driving Intel’s [go-to-market] execution and strengthening operational excellence,” the chipmaker said back then.

This put Kalvin in charge of global operations across the Americas, the Asia-Pacific-Japan region, the Europe-Middle East-Africa region and China. He was also responsible for global reserve logistics, partner and data operations, data management and sales excellence.

In the second half of last year, Kalvin gained extra responsibilities by taking over the support function that had been under his purview when he was global channel chief. This resulted in an updated title: general manager of Global Operations and Support.

Kalvin’s global channel chief successor, Travis Vickers, only held the role for several months until Intel named Dave Guzzi as vice president of Global Partner Scale in October of last year. Guzzi’s responsibilities were augmented this past August when he was given the new title of vice president of global go-to-market enterprise and partner.

EMEA Leader To Leave After Less Than Three Years On The Job

In Ernst’s Tuesday memo, he said that Hargaden “made the difficult decision to leave Intel” in the first quarter of next year “for personal reasons.” Hargaden will continue to lead the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business while the chipmaker conducts a search for the executive’s successor, according to Ernst.

Hargaden, a nine-year Intel company veteran, became the general manager of the EMEA business in June 2023 after leading the group on an interim basis for a few months prior.

He had taken over from Frans Scheper, who held the EMEA leadership role for a little more than a year before deciding to step down for personal reasons, CRN previously reported.

As the EMEA leader, Hargaden has been responsible for the chipmaker’s revenue growth in the region as well as “strengthening Intel’s existing regional customer and partner relationships,” according to his LinkedIn profile.

Hargaden also called himself a steward of “Intel’s planned investment in Europe, which remains a critical region with ambitious semiconductor plans.”

Earlier this year, Intel said it was canceling plans to build new multibillion-dollar facilities in Germany and Poland as part of what CEO Lip-Bu Tan called a “new financial discipline” he has instituted for the Intel Foundry contract chip manufacturing business.

The Germany and Poland projects were initially announced in 2022 and 2023, respectively, as key parts of a manufacturing expansion plan by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger.

Thakkar—who Ernst said “has decided to leave” in the first quarter of next year—joined Intel as a vice president of SMG in August 2023 and was responsible for go-to-market strategy, growth initiatives and corporate transformation, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Before spending seven months at Samsung as vice president and general manager of Samsung.com, he spent nine years at HP Inc., most recently as vice president and general manager of the HP.com stories, his profile stated.

Intel Moves To ‘Align’ Chinese Engineering Teams With Global Divisions

Discussing further changes to Intel’s business in China, Ernst said that the company is making organizational changes within the Intel China Group to “align” engineering teams located there with global divisions whose leaders are in the United States.

Ernst added that the semiconductor giant is making these moves “while maintaining explicit local leadership to foster tight connections to local customer enablement and new design opportunities that can be incubated in China and scaled globally.”

As part of the changes, Ernst said Sam Gao will serve as the general manager of China software, Client Computing Group (CCG) customer engineering and CCG business unit. Gao will report directly to Lisa Pearce, who was appointed corporate vice president and general manager of the Software Engineering Group and made a direct report to Tan in April.

According to the memo, Gao will also have an indirect reporting relationship (also referred to as a “dotted line” on an organizational chart) to Mike Hurley, who was named the leader of the newly combined Silicon Engineering and Client Platform Group in October; Jim Johnson, the general manager of CCG; and Alan Wang, the new chair of Intel China.

The China silicon engineering teams led by Peter Wang “will move to” Hurley’s Silicon Engineering and Client Platform Group, with a dotted line relationship to Alan Wang, Ernst added.

In addition, the memo stated that Peter Chen, the general manager of the China Data Center Group (DCG) Platform and business unit will report directly to Alan Wang. Chen will also have a dotted-line relationship to Kevork Kechichian, the former Arm executive who became general manager of DCG in September.

“These changes will ensure we empower our engineers to tackle Intel’s most complex and technical challenges with greater efficiency,” wrote Ernst, who added that the chipmaker’s “commitment to the China market remains unwavering.”