BayAreaCIO ORBIE Leadership Award recipient: For Intel CIO Cynthia Stoddard, leadership means listening first
When Cynthia Stoddard talks about leadership, she doesn’t start with strategy or systems. She starts with people.
“Employees look for confidence, authenticity and follow-through, but they also need to know they will be treated with respect and dignity during difficult times,” said Stoddard, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Intel. That belief has carried her through a career spent leading technology organizations through growth, contraction, mergers and acquisitions, and cultural change, always with an eye toward keeping people at the center of the work.
A foundation of curiosity
Cindy grew up in Massachusetts, where she developed instincts that still guide her today. “My early life gave me a practical foundation: stay curious, work hard, keep learning and don’t be afraid to take on something new,” she said.
That curiosity pulled her into technology, drawn to a field “at the intersection of problem-solving, business impact, and people.” What kept her there was its constant motion, requiring “curiosity, adaptability, and a lifelong-learner mindset,” she said.
Across her career, Cindy has led technology organizations through some of the hardest kinds of change a company can face. The thread connecting each role, she said, has been helping the business move faster while building trust in IT execution.
Stoddard’s leadership journey
Before Intel, Cindy served as Senior Vice President and CIO at Adobe, leading global technology strategy and enterprise operations across a multi-billion-dollar business in more than 70 countries. She helped modernize the company’s technology foundation for SaaS scale. Earlier, she held senior technology leadership roles at NetApp, Safeway, APL, and Consolidated Freightways.
At Intel, Cindy’s approach has taken on new meaning. “I’m especially energized by the opportunity to help an iconic company position itself for the next generation of innovation—by listening first, understanding what works, and then helping teams move with clarity, purpose, and confidence,” she said.
She’s equally proud of moments when people on her teams “deliver, grow, and gain confidence when they have the right level of support.” Cindy’s leadership has earned widespread recognition, including being named to the Forbes CIO List and Forbes 50 Over 50.
Listen first, act second
Cindy traces much of her philosophy to a difficult stretch earlier in her career, working through an acquisition where the business was losing significant money every day. “No matter how tough the situation gets, people matter,” she said. That lesson reinforced the value of listening, communicating honestly, and creating multiple channels for feedback. “The people you lead do not stop mattering when circumstances get hard—and in many ways, those are the moments when remembering the people matters most,” she said.
Cindy’s leadership extends well beyond her own organization. She serves or has served on the boards of Zylo and the Oakland Zoo, where she is a board member and co-chair, and was a founding board member of Impact 100 East Bay, helping build it from the ground up.
Cindy’s advice to the next generation of IT leaders starts with restraint. “Listen first, act second,” she said. “Build trust by delivering on the basics, because people need to believe your organization can execute before they will follow you into bigger change.” She also urges leaders to know the business deeply, invest in their people, and model curiosity for their teams.
Above all, she encourages leaders not to wait for certainty. “Some of the best growth comes from raising your hand for hard assignments, learning as you go, and staying open to feedback along the way,” she said.