Intel's Maloney in bed by nine

12 Apr 2008 | 10:12 BST

By Andrew Thomas

ONE OF THE PERILS of working for a Sunday paper is that you sometimes get asked to write an in-depth profile of the great and good.

So spare a thought for the Sunday Times' Andrew Davidson who was asked to do the business on Chipzilla executive veep, Sean Maloney.

Despite the Sunday Times once having the best investigative reporting team on the planet, it has now sadly descended to the level of Smash Hits when it comes to tough questioning. Readers should also bear in mind that the interview took place in the offices of Intel's UK spin doctors, so it would be surprising if at least some of the answers given weren't pre-arranged to ensure Maloney was on message and down wid da kidz.

Maloney, 51, we learn, is 'likeably blunt south Londoner' whose favourite band is the Buzzcocks, a second division faux punk band now playing in the back room of a pub near you.

Likeably blunt Sean was chucked out of two schools and failed to finish a college course, but that hasn't stopped him earning £688,000 plus stock options or being tipped to take over as Chipzilla's CEO when Paul Otellini throws in the towel in three years' time.

So maybe you should think twice before telling your kids how important it is to stick in at school and do their homework.

More interestingly, we discover that Maloney became a Marxist in the 1970s - an unusual state of affairs for a senior manager in a US corporation, we feel. But likeably blunt's socialist views are tempered by owning a house on San Francisco Bay and his own boat.

"I have just the one boat, built by Carl Douglas, the most magically talented boatbuilder in the world. It’s probably the last wooden boat on San Francisco Bay."

He gets up at 0515 and rows his boat on the bay, then drives his black Toyota Prius (what else? This is California) to work where he starts around 0715, finishes at 1800, has a company dinner, arrives home by 2000 and is tucked up in bed by 2100.

When he finds time to spend that rather commodious salary is unexplained unless he has an unfeasibly-large collection of Buzzcocks memorabilia.

But perhaps the final words should be left to Sunday Times readers commenting on the piece:

"Let's hope he makes Intel's Chips as good as the ones in Maggie's Cafe, Lewisham!" writes the improbably-named Mike Giggles, from Lewisham, UK

"I met Mr. Maloney about ten years ago in Portland, Oregon. He is a very sharp guy, very technical (unlike Paul Otellini) and would be an asset to Intel. Intel stumbled about 5 years ago by getting distracted from its core PC chip business, and lost ground to rival AMD that it has had to fight hard to reclaim in the last 2 years. I doubt they would have fumbled so badly if he had been at the helm." Opines a more sober Fazal Majid, from San Francisco, CA

"This is fabulous personal insight into a great leader and a very likable person." Gushes Kristi, from Portland, OR

Let's hope that's an 'e' rather than a 'c' that Kristi's missed out there. µ

L'Inq
Lots more over on the Sunday Times

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