Sandra Rivera

CEO of Altera

Sandra Rivera, CEO of Altera, a company acquired by Intel Corporation in 2015 for $16.7 billion.

Born to Colombian parents, Rivera earned her bachelor's in electrical engineering from Penn State University.

Her career journey:
► Started at Westinghouse Corp. and Catalyst Telecom
► Joined Intel in 2000 for a 23-year journey, where she led their Data Center & AI Group, steering Intel's artificial intelligence strategy. Under her leadership, Intel developed special AI chips called Gaudi that compete with NVIDIA's popular AI processors
► In 2024, when Intel spun off Altera as an independent company, Rivera was chosen as CEO

At Altera, Rivera is pushing the boundaries of its reprogrammable chips (called FPGAs). These chips are crucial in many industries because they can be updated and modified even after they're installed in devices - making them perfect for rapidly evolving technologies like 5G networks, autonomous vehicles, and industrial automation.

Rivera's ambitions and expertise are clear in how she’s targeting a market expected to reach $55B, competing with AMD's similar division called Xilinx.

TIME recognized Rivera's influence in AI by naming her one of the industry's most influential people in 2023.

I love Rivera’s powerful quote that speaks to being a minority in tech leadership: "You are not going to be in a majority, you will be remembered for how you showed up in that room because you're so different from most of the other participants. So be remembered for something good."