Intel’s ANZ managing director Kate Burleigh is resigning from the company after a 20-year stint.
Kate Burleigh, managing director at Intel Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) , has announced that she is leaving the chip giant after a 20-year stint on June 30,2017.
Burleigh said the « time seems right » to pursue opportunities outside of Intel.
Burleigh served as the ANZ managing director since 2012 during which she oversaw Intel’s transformation from a PC-focused company to one that seeks to power connected computing devices.
In addition to growing the local Intel business, Burleigh is credited for advocating for STEM education in schools and smart government policy on technology during her 20-year tenure.
« Kate brought a new energy and creativity to the Managing Director role in Australia and New Zealand. Under her leadership, Intel’s impact extended well beyond our traditional customer base and channels, » said Jerry Tsao, VP of Intel’s Sales & Marketing Group and GM of Regional Sales for the Asia Pacific and Japan region.
Prior to becoming the ANZ chief, Burleigh spent six years as Intel’s marketing and retail sales director, working across the organisation as a PR manager, online marketing manager, and enterprise marketing manager among others.
Given the nature of the sales and marketing industry, where there are typically more females, Burleigh told TechRepublic last year that she never noticed the gender imbalance. It was only when she started putting her hand up for enterprise sales roles that she felt she had to justify her job a little more.
« It wasn’t that it was harder, but I had to have that second or third conversation that I really was serious and I seriously wanted it, because were a few question marks over could you really do it, and I could never say it was because I was female, or was it because my skills were [such that] I was identified more strongly as a consumer marketer, » she said previously.
Burleigh is also among a number of high-ranking female executives to leave the company in the last couple of years.
Intel’s executive ranks have been in a state of flux since mid-2015, when Intel president Renee James exited the company. The chip giant has since replaced many of its top female managers including former CFO Stacy Smith and CIO Kim Stevenson, though Smith remains at the company in a different role.
Earlier this month, Intel announced that long-time executive Diane Bryant was stepping down from her role as GM of the Data Center Group to tend to a personal family matter. Intel said she would return to the company in a new role.
Intel’s 2016 diversity report showed that the chip giant had 26,159 female employees as of December 2016, accounting for 25.8 percent of the company’s 86,071 employee population.
18,524 of these women, or 21.5 percent, held technical roles, while 73 or 18.4 percent of women held leadership roles, according to statistics released in December.
Men, in comparison, represented 78.4 percent of technical roles and 81.3 percent of leadership roles.
Intel appears to be aware of the gender disparity in its workforce. It was one of the first companies to make its diversity stats publicly available through its EEO-1 reports filed with the US government.
At the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show, CEO Brian Krzanich boldly proclaimed on stage that the company would achieve full representation by 2020.
To further demonstrate its commitment to the cause, Intel has also pledged $300 million on initiatives to increase diversity.
The company will, however, need to drastically increase its rate of progression to make full representation a reality in three years.
