Intel Legal Chief Rodgers to Retire, Interim Replacement Named

Intel Corp. general counsel Steven Rodgers will retire May 31, the company disclosed in a securities filing Wednesday.

Rodgers, who has worked at Intel for more than 22 years, has been the company’s general counsel since 2014. Corporate vice president and corporate secretary Susie Giordano is succeeding him as interim general counsel, Intel said.

Giordano will lead the Santa Clara, Calif.-based technology company’s legal, trade, and government affairs teams until a permanent general counsel is appointed, Intel spokeswoman Nancy Sanchez said.

Rodgers being one of the highest-paid legal chiefs among Fortune 1000 companies during the pandemic year of 2020, Bloomberg Law reported last year. Rodgers received more than $10.3 million in total compensation in 2020 and roughly the same sum during 2021, according to Intel proxy filings.

“We are grateful to Steve for everything he has done for Intel and wish him all the best,” Sanchez said.

Rodgers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about his post-Intel plans. He joined the company as a senior litigation counsel in 2000 after working as an associate and partner at Brown & Bain, an intellectual property-focused law firm eventually absorbed by Perkins Coie.

Rodgers owns more than $5.3 million in Intel stock, per Bloomberg data. Securities filings show he’s sold off nearly $1.8 million in company shares within the past year.

Giordano, his interim replacement as Intel’s legal chief, has worked at the company for more than a decade. In 2017, Giordano had a key role advising on Intel’s $15 billion acquisition of Mobileye NV, an Israeli computer vision company whose technology is used in autonomous vehicles.

Intel announced in December its plans to take Mobileye public.

Last summer, the company hired Bruce Andrews, an attorney and former top lobbyist at SoftBank Group Corp., to be its chief government affairs officer. The position, which reports to Rodgers, sees Andrews oversee Intel’s government affairs and public policy functions.

In November, Intel brought on former Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart litigation associate Ryan Mangum to serve as a U.S. employment litigation counsel.