Sandra L. Rivera is chief executive officer of Altera, an Intel Company. Rivera leads Altera as a standalone business focused on development of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that are used across the data center, communications, industrial, automotive, aerospace and defense markets.
Before assuming her current role, Rivera led Intel’s Data Center and AI Group, where she guided development of data center products, including Intel® Xeon® processors, Intel® Max® and Flex® series graphic processors, Intel® Gaudi® AI accelerators and FPGA products. Rivera also drove Intel’s overall artificial intelligence (AI) strategy and product roadmap. In 2023, Rivera was named by TIME Magazine as one of the industry’s most influential people in AI.
From 2019 to 2021, Rivera was Intel’s chief people officer, leading the company’s Human Resources organization worldwide. She also led Intel’s Network Platforms Group from 2017 to 2019, driving the transformation of network infrastructure to Intel-based solutions.
Rivera joined Intel in 2000 as a marketing director after the acquisition of Dialogic Corp. Earlier, Rivera co-founded and served as president of The CTI Authority and served as president of the computer telephony division at Catalyst Telecom.
Rivera holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. She sits on the Equinix board of directors and is a member of the University of California, Berkeley’s engineering advisory board.