Wooster Students Discuss Research, Business Strategy with Intel's Craig Barrett

Retired CEO/chairman caps full day on campus with talk on U.S. competitiveness (video available)

** View video of Barrett’s presentation**

WOOSTER, Ohio, Feb. 26 -- It’s not every day that a couple of college students get to sit around a table and talk research with the former chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation. But that’s just what Deanna Pickett and Laura West did Wednesday. The two senior chemistry majors and their adviser, Associate Professor Paul Edmiston, spent an hour discussing their Independent Study projects, the challenges of doing research, and the power of an individual with an idea, with Craig R. Barrett, who retired last May after 35 years with the tech giant.

“He was very easy to talk to,” West said. “He had a genuine interest in our projects and asked a lot of good questions.”

The conversations continued as Barrett joined students and faculty members from chemistry, mathematics, and computer science for lunch, and others for dinner. In between, he spoke with Professor John Sell’s strategic management class. In a lively hour and twenty minute session, Barrett told the dozen students in the class some of the “story behind the story” of Intel’s rise from a startup begun with $2.5 million in venture capital to an industry leader with $37 billion in annual revenue and more than 100,000 employees worldwide. The students, in turn, peppered Barrett with questions on everything from Intel’s corporate culture and values to competition with AMD.

Barrett capped a full day on campus with a public presentation on U.S. competitiveness in the global market and what can be done to strengthen it. 

Barrett was at the college as part of the James R. Wilson Lecture Series in Business Economics, which brings business and financial leaders to the Wooster campus to share their insights with students, faculty, and the broader community.

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for an innovative curriculum that emphasizes mentored, independent research. Each Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 1,800 students.