Intel chairman Barrett to retire

Intel Corp. chairman Craig Barrett, who steered the company through the dot-com meltdown as CEO and has become a high-profile advocate for expanding computing in the developing world, plans to retire in May, the company said Friday.

Barrett, 69, has spent more than three decades at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel. He served as its fourth CEO, a position he held for seven years until Paul Otellini took over in 2005.

Barrett has worked with the United Nations and humanitarian organizations on bringing computers and other technologies to developing countries. That role also gave Barrett an opportunity to push the inexpensive Classmate PCs that Intel designed for international schoolchildren. The Classmate has rivaled the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Barrett, who joined Intel in 1974 and has held jobs ranging from technology development manager to various vice president roles, has been chairman since 2005.