By Don Clark And Angela Chen 

Intel Corp. said President Renée James is stepping down to seek a chief executive job elsewhere, one of several management changes announced Thursday as CEO Brian Krzanich pushes the chip maker to move more quickly.

Ms. James, 51 years old, is one of the most prominent female executives in Silicon Valley and the highest-ranking woman ever at Intel. She agreed to stay until the end of the year to help with transition planning, Mr. Krzanich said in a letter to employees.

In another high-profile change, longtime Intel Capital chief Arvind Sodhani, 61, would retire in January, the company said.

Hermann Eul and Mike Bell, two executives whose responsibilities had been changed in recent reorganizations, also would leave the company, Intel said.

The changes come as the Silicon Valley giant has been hurt by sagging sales of PCs that use its microprocessors, while results from efforts to expand into new markets have been mixed. Intel hasn't placed chips in many smartphones, for example, and its sales of chips for tablets required costly subsidies that triggered operating losses.

Intel in April reported that first-quarter net income grew just 3% on overall revenue that was flat with the year-earlier period. The company also said it would reduce its spending in 2015 by $300 million. Intel hasn't publicly quantified the resulting job cuts, but The Oregonian newspaper reported last month that an internal memo from Mr. Krzanich put the figure at several hundred employees.

Mr. Krzanich has pushed Intel into such areas as wearable devices while helping to defend its lucrative business in chips for server systems. Partly to advance that strategy, Intel last month announced a deal to buy programmable chip maker Altera Corp. for about $16.7 billion in cash, its biggest deal ever.

Ms. James has spent 28 years at Intel, including time as an assistant to former Chief Executive Andy Grove. She led Intel's software operations for years and helped to spearhead some of Intel's biggest acquisitions.

Her rise to the No. 2 spot came in May 2013, when she and Mr. Krzanich were named in a tandem appointment. They have said they convinced Intel's board on the merits of a two-person leadership structure to take Intel forward.

But Ms. James seemed to settle into a less prominent role lately, participating less frequently in Intel events and announcements.

"I think what happened is that Brian really grabbed the reins," said Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates. The idea of two executives running Intel may have been seen by the board as a kind of insurance, he said, and "in some sense they didn't need the insurance."

Intel declined to make Ms. James or other executives available to comment on the announcements. Mr. Krzanich, in his letter to employees, wrote that while he was sorry to see Ms. James go, he added that he and Intel's board "fully support her in this decision and we respect her goals."

As part of efforts to streamline functions, Mr. Krzanich said, Intel's venture capital operations after Mr. Sodhani's departure would be headed by Wendell Brooks, who would also continue to serve as president of mergers and acquisitions.

On July 1, the company's security products organization, which was operated as an independent division since the acquisition of software maker McAfee, was formally integrated into Intel's operations under general manager Chris Young, the company said.

In another change, Josh Walden, general manager of Intel's new technology group, would lead all product and research teams related to new technology categories, such as wearable and interactive computing devices, Intel said.

Mr. Eul joined Intel following its 2011 acquisition of mobile chip operations from Infineon Technologies AG. He and Mr. Bell, a former executive at such companies as Apple Inc., later jointly led mobile chip operations at Intel before Mr. Bell began leading efforts in wearable devices.

The mobile chip efforts recently were shifted under the leadership of Kirk Skaugen, who was heading Intel's PC chip business. Mr. Bell's responsibilities, meanwhile, were recently shifted to Mr. Walden's new technology group.

One executive gaining a higher profile in the changes is Aicha Evans, a general manager who was elevated to Intel's management committee. She has led a push into wireless modem chips that has gained traction lately.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said the developments make it seem that Mr. Bell and Mr. Eul weren't being penalized for the record of the mobile business. "The mobile group has had minimal financial success so far, but does have a good road map," he said.

Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@dowjones.com

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