There are a lot of similarities between software and organizations. But being a CEO also requires people skills. Many of us software folks have good intuition about how to make technical projects successful but the way to get there often involves getting other people to cooperate. AKA leadership. That's the tough one.

That said I agree that a CEO of a company like Intel has to be technical. I mean we saw what happened to Apple when the CEO came from Pepsi. But you need someone technical, in the ___domain, who is also a strong leader and a visionary and those people are not that common.