Raj Hazra Retiring from Intel Data Center Group, Successor Not Known
This article is an update to a story published earlier today.
Rajeeb Hazra, corporate VP of Intel’s Data Center Group and GM for the Enterprise and Government Group, is retiring after more than 24 years at the company. At this writing, his successor is unknown. An earlier story on this site cited unnamed sources who said that Trish Damkroger, Intel Data Center Group vice president, will replace Hazra, but an Intel spokesperson today told us that Damkroger "will continue to lead our high-performance computing business, and that the rumor that she will replace Raj is incorrect."
The surprising news broke late yesterday here at SC19, Denver, the HPC industry’s biggest annual conference – an appropriate setting for one of HPC’s most prominent and powerful figures – and was discussed publicly at a party held last night by Lenovo and other vendor (i.e., Intel customer) events. While rumors quickly spread regarding the circumstances of his departure, Hazra told us last night in a brief phone conversation that he is retiring of his own accord. Noting that “it’s been a tremendous journey…,” Hazra said “my brain is still young,” indicating he plans to remain active in the industry.
Raj Hazra
Hazra joined Intel in 1995 and has held several engineering and management positions in the corporate research labs and the Digital Enterprise Group. Within Intel's Data Center Group, led by EVP/GM Navin Shenoy, Hazra led Enterprise and Government Business Group. He came to Intel from Lockheed Corp. and, prior to that, five years he was at NASA’s Langley Research Center. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from William & Mary University.
Hazra worked at Intel’s Data Center Group during a period of technology disruption and increased competition. Whereas the company until a few years held 99 percent-plus market share in data center and HPC server processors with its Xeon line of CPUs, the emergence of GPU processor technology – and its major role in enabling the rapid emergence of AI and machine learning – along with a resurgent AMD’s line of CPUs has eroded Intel’s position.
