In 1994, Barrett was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for technical leadership in advancing quality and productivity through manufacturing technology in the semiconductor industry.
Barrett served as the president of Intel starting in 1997 and its chief executive officer from 1998 to 2005.[2] He successfully led the corporation through some of its worst times, including the burst of the dot-com bubble and a severe recession.
He serves as president and chairman of BASIS School Inc.,[5] a charter school group as well as chair of the board of directors for the National Forest Foundation,[6] the nonprofit partner to the U.S. Forest Service.
Education
Barrett attended Stanford University from 1957 to 1964 and received a Ph.D. in Materials Science. During his time at Stanford, he joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity. After graduation, he joined the Stanford University Department of Materials Science and Engineering and remained there until 1974. Barrett was NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1965.[7]
In 1969, Barrett received the Robert Lansing Hardy Award of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and remains a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is the author of over forty technical papers dealing with the influence of microstructure on the properties of materials and co-authored a textbook on materials science, The Principles of Engineering Materials, along with UCLA professor Alan S. Tetelman (founder of Exponent, Inc.) and Stanford professor William D. Nix, published by Prentice-Hall in 1973, which remains in use today.[9]
On June 28, 2009, he was announced the 2009 Laureate of the Global Award of the President of Armenia for Outstanding Contribution to Humanity through IT.[10]
Barrett was employed by Intel Corporation in 1974 as a manager. He was promoted to vice president of the corporation in 1984, to senior vice president in 1987, and executive vice president in 1990. Barrett was elected to Intel's board of directors in 1992 and was named the company's chief operating officer in 1993. He became Intel's fourth president in May 1997 and chief executive officer in 1998. He became chairman of the board in May 2005, when he was succeeded as CEO by Paul Otellini. In January 2009, he announced that he would be stepping down as chairman and member of the board at the annual stockholders' meeting in May 2009.