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"We're not bringing in women or African-Americans or Hispanics in exclusion to other people," CEO Brian Krzanich said. "We're actually just trying to bring them in and be a part of the whole environment."

(AP photo)

Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich says the company's executives have faced unspecified "threats" from their own employees over their push to diversify the company's work force.

"People worry that as a white man, you're kind of under siege to a certain extent," Krzanich said at a Friday conference in San Francisco, according to the online journal TechCrunch.

"There's been a bit of resistance. We've even had a few threats and things like that on some of our leadership team around our position on diversity and inclusion," Krzanich said. "We stand up there and just remind everybody it's not an exclusive process. We're not bringing in women or African-Americans or Hispanics in exclusion to other people. We're actually just trying to bring them in and be a part of the whole environment."

Intel was a pioneer in reporting diversity figures for its work force, which like other tech companies' is overwhelmingly male, with Hispanic and African-Americans dramatically underrepresented. Intel had made little progress in changing that, though, until it announced a $300 million diversity initiative 15 months ago.

The program's first year marked only modest changes in Intel's employee makeup, according to a February report on its work force: 24.8 percent of its employees are women, while African-Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics constitute just 12.4 percent of Intel's work force.

On Friday, Krzanich said the company will soon be reporting employee pay broken down by gender and race in search of disparities in need of remedy.

Intel confirmed Tuesday that it will eliminate 12,000 jobs - 11 percent of all its workers - in job cuts that begin this week. It's part of a massive restructuring designed to re-engineer Intel for long-term decline in the PC market, focusing instead on growth in data centers and smart, connected devices.

The chipmaker told VentureBeat that the job cuts won't affect its diversity initiative: "Diversity and inclusion are integral to how we operate, and we're not changing our commitment to our diversity goals."

Intel is Oregon's largest private employer, with 19,500 working at its campuses in Washington County. In a note to employees following the layoff announcement, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Intel said no group will receive "special treatment" in determining who loses their jobs.

"We do not consider age, race, sexual orientation, or any other personal demographics when we make these decisions. This restructuring is independent from our diversity and inclusion initiative."

-- Mike Rogoway

mrogoway@oregonian.com

503-294-7699

@rogoway