Intel has appointed sandra rivera as the Chief People Officer and executive vice president. In this role, she will lead the human resources organisation and will be reporting to CEO Bob Swan. Previously, Rivera was responsible for the Network Platforms Group, and served as Intel's 5G executive sponsor.

“Sandra is a role model for an Intel that is customer obsessed, collaborative and fearless while firmly grounded in trust, transparency and inclusivity. I am thrilled that Sandra will lead this critical part of our strategy to power a data-centric world,” Swan said.

“In a company driven by deep, technical talent, Sandra is an excellent technical leader who builds successful businesses by first building great teams. I am confident Sandra, as Chief People Officer, will help us accelerate our transformation and position our Intel team to play a bigger role in our customers' success.”

Rivera replaces Matt Smith, who announced his retirement after more than 20 years at the company in a variety of HR and legal leadership positions, including most recently serving as Intel's chief human resources officer.

“Our people are our greatest asset and are the fuel by which we extend our rich history and success of driving technology innovations that positively impact the world. The culture evolution work that we're driving forward is integrally tied to our business transformation. You can't have one without the other,” Rivera said.

With Rivera transitioning to her new role, Intel will combine its network infrastructure organization with its programmable solutions organization under the leadership of Dan McNamara.

The merging of these two business groups allows Intel to bring maximum value to our customers by delivering unprecedented and seamless access to Intel's broad portfolio of products, from Xeon, SoC, FPGA, eASIC, full custom, software, IP, systems and solutions across the cloud, enterprise, network, embedded and IoT markets, said the company.