Oct 29 (Reuters) - British semiconductor wafer maker IQE

on Tuesday said its CEO, Americo Lemos, has left the

company with immediate effect and finance chief Jutta Meier will

take interim charge.

Meier joined IQE earlier this year from Intel Corp ( INTC )

where she served as a senior finance director.

Phil Smith, the chair of IQE since 2019, will step down and

Mark Cubitt, who was named the chair-elect earlier this month,

will become executive chair, the company said.

"Their (Mark and Jutta) immediate priorities will include a

focus on executing on the near-term pipeline as well as cash

generation across the Group and on unlocking embedded value by

pursuing the IPO of our Taiwan business," Phil Smith, the

outgoing chairman, said.

IQE, whose 'epi-wafers' are used in the iPhone's facial

recognition sensors, forecast annual profit at the lower end of

market view in September as some of its markets were slower to

recover from a supply glut.

In July, IQE said it planned to file for an IPO of its

Taiwanese business on the local stock exchange, although it

would retain control of the unit.

(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Abinaya

Vijayaraghavan)