As Intel undergoes major spending cuts, longtime channel advocate Jason Kimrey is leaving the chipmaker along with a few other partner-facing leaders.

Longtime Intel channel stalwart Jason Kimrey, a fierce channel advocate admired by partners as one of the most influential channel chiefs in the industry, is leaving the beleaguered semiconductor giant, CRN has learned.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company informed employees in the Sales and Marketing Group (SMG) on Friday of Kimrey’s departure, according to a source with direct knowledge who asked not to be identified in order to speak about personnel moves.

[Related: Intel Plans 35 Percent Cut In Costs For Sales And Marketing Group]

Intel partners told CRN they were shocked to learn about the departure of Kimrey, vice president of North America commercial and partner sales and a 23-year Intel veteran they considered the “face of the channel” for the chip company. Kimrey has been recognized as one of the most influential channel chiefs by CRN for the past six years because of his fierce advocacy for the channel.

“Jason definitely was the face of the channel for Intel, and he had fair dealings with everybody he encountered in the channel over the years,” said Marty Bauerlein, chief consumer and commercial officer at distribution powerhouse D&H Distributing.

“He probably had one of the best reputations of any vendor out there in terms of being fair, his investment strategy and his engagement all over the country. I would have rated him the top 5 percent of channel executives in terms of those things,” he added.

In a statement to CRN, an Intel spokesperson reiterated the company’s commitment to the channel.

“We are deeply committed to the success of our partners, and we are strengthening our focus on our channel partner ecosystem as Intel transforms into a more efficient, agile company,” the spokesperson said.

Kimrey’s exit coincides with a few other senior channel leaders leaving Intel as SMG—the channel’s main conduit for working with the chipmaker—plans to reduce more than 35 percent in costs through a mix of job cuts and program changes, as CRN reported last month.

The upheaval in SMG is happening as Intel seeks to slash more than 15,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its total workforce, and over $10 billion in costs to weather an unexpected and significant downturn in revenue and profitability. Intel is reducing its headcount through a mix of voluntary buyouts, early retirement packages and layoffs.

The other channel leaders departing Intel include David Allen, a 31-year veteran who was most recently director of U.S. distribution sales and marketing, and Jennifer Bossin, a 9-year veteran who was sales director of global systems integrator partnerships, according to sources familiar with their plans.

Kathleen Robinson, who was managing director of federal systems integrators and defense industrial base partners, recently updated her LinkedIn profile to say that she left Intel last month to become vice president of enterprise sales at Seekr Technologies, an enterprise AI software company that is working closely with Intel on its Gaudi accelerator chips.

Allen is leaving because he accepted a retirement package, according to two sources familiar with his departure. The reasons for Bossin’s and Robinson’s departures could not be discerned. Allen, Bossin and Robinson did not respond to requests for comment.

An executive at a national systems integrator called the departures of Intel channel veterans like Kimrey, Bossin and Allen a “huge blow” to the channel.

“It really is because you’re losing the leadership infrastructure,” said the executive, who asked to not be named to speak candidly.

Kimrey Championed Partners

In February, Intel appointed Kimrey to become the head of the North America commercial and partner sales organization in conjunction with the creation of the group.

The group was created through a merger of the U.S. channel scale and partners team with teams managing relationships with large U.S. enterprise customers, U.S. communications service providers as well as Canadian customers and partners.

At the time, Kimrey told CRN that Intel decided to combine the teams to ensure that the previously disparate groups “operate as one Intel” and “bring the best of what Intel has to offer to the entire commercial market in a single voice.”

“This is just another example of where we’re trying to reduce layers and just drive a more efficient structure to bring the most value to our customers through our partners,” he said.

Kimrey did a great job connecting partners with customers in the field, according to an executive at a second solution provider, who also asked not to be identified.

“He’s very well connected on the sales side. For us as partners, you need someone who’s got some push and pull on the selling side,” he said.

Prior to leading the North America commercial and partner sales organization, Kimrey served as Intel’s channel chief for the Americas for nearly seven years. In that role, he was responsible for working with a variety of partners, including national solution providers, systems integrators, distributors and software providers.

Over the past few years, Kimrey’s partner organization launched and then refined the Intel Partner Alliance program, which consolidated previously separate partner programs into one with the goals of simplifying access to partner resources and making it easier for different kinds of partners to collaborate.

Bauerlein, the executive at D&H Distributing, said Kimrey always took the time to ensure he knew the latest information about any given partner he was dealing with.

“He always made sure when he was dealing with D&H that he was up to date on all the programs we were running, like our Success Path program, and advocating for investments in our programs. And he also did a great job with his team making sure they provided use cases that were relevant to the solution providers,” he said.

Partners Voice Concerns About Departures, Funding

An executive at a major distributor called Kimrey’s departure surprising and said he wants to know how Intel will handle the transition of responsibilities for employees leaving the company, whether it’s voluntarily or through a layoff.

“If you’re looking at people that have larger roles and larger responsibilities, you know that that transition process is pretty important,” said the distribution executive, who asked to remain anonymous to talk about Intel employees leaving the company.

On top of concerns about losing key channel advocates like Kimrey, there is continuing concern among partners about a reduction in funding to them due to Intel’s plan to make big cuts in SMG. According to presentation slide viewed by CRN last month, the group is expected to trim $100 million this year and $300 million in the first half of next year by simplifying programs and adjusting roles and responsibilities around funding for partners.

The executive at the national systems integrator said Intel recently turned down funding requests for sales enablement activities such as content development and training.

“I’m afraid that it’s going to limit the resources that we have. So you have AMD, you have Nvidia stepping up to provide more resources, and you have Intel looking at providing less resources,” the source said.

The national systems integrator executive is concerned that dwindling resources from Intel could hurt the company’s efforts to challenge Nvidia with its Gaudi 3 accelerator chip, which is a key part of the semiconductor’s AI strategy in the data center.

“They’ve got a great product in what’s coming with Gaudi 3, but their ability to execute on getting that into partners’ hands and into customers’ hands, I think, is at risk,” the systems integrator said.

While the executive at the national systems integrator has seen other major vendors reduce funding for the channel, it would nevertheless represent a new challenge for Intel.

“Intel built a model of using that to get mindshare within sales and engineering organizations, and they’re going to have to figure out a different way,” the source said.