Intel Hires Away HPE CIO Archana Deskus To Lead Global IT Operations

'Intel is going through an exciting and historic transformation as it extends the reach and impact of information technology in an era of data,' says Archana Deskus, who was most recently HPE's CIO.

Intel has hired away Hewlett Packard Enterprise CIO Archana Deskus to lead the chipmaker's global IT operations in the midst of what the executive called a “historic transformation.”

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced on Monday that Deskus was appointed as senior vice president and CIO and will report directly to Intel CFO George Davis, a former Qualcomm executive who was put in charge of Intel's IT operations when he joined early last year.

[Related: Intel Hires Ex-AMD Silicon Design Exec To Lead Discrete GPU Efforts]

"At Intel, the CIO job is critical as we expand our growth opportunity and showcase the power of IT to unleash the potential of data for our customers and across our operations," Bob Swan, Intel's CEO, said in a statement. "Archie has deep experience and a strong track record of driving operational excellence and transformation in complex global IT environments. She will be an outstanding addition to our management team."

HPE said in a statement that “after two and half years marked by notable contributions to HPE, our CIO Archie Deskus has decided to leave the company to accept a new position as CIO of Intel. Intel is one of HPE’s close strategic partners and we wish Archie the best in her new role.”

HPE said that Rashmi Kumar, VP of IT, has been appointed interim CIO. “Rashmi joined us a year and a half ago from McKesson where she served as CIO of its U.S. pharmaceutical business,” HPE said. “She is a strong, experienced leader who can ensure a smooth transition for our IT team.”

Deskus replaces Paula Tolliver, a former Dow Chemical executive was Intel's CIO for more than three years until she stepped down in September 2019, according to LinkedIn.

A seasoned CIO veteran, Deskus had served as CIO and senior vice president at HPE since fall 2017. While there, she was tasked with overseeing a massive IT restructuring that involved moving the company from 1,000 business processes supported by 10 ERP systems and more than 950 applications to just 100 businesses processes with a single global ERP system and 350 applications.

"Intel is going through an exciting and historic transformation as it extends the reach and impact of information technology in an era of data," Deskus said in a statement. "I am thrilled to join the Intel management team and to lead an extraordinarily innovative global IT group at this strategic inflection point for the technology industry."

Prior to joining HPE, Deskus held CIO positions at Baker Hughes, Ingersoll Rand, Timex Group USA and Carrier over the last 17 years. She received her bachelor's from Boston University and her Master of Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Bob Venero, CEO of Holbrook, N.Y.-based solution provider Future Tech, No. 101 on the CRN 2019 SP500, said he hopes Deskus will harness Intel’s internal systems to help resolve the processor supply shortage that has plagued the channel for more than a year. "My hope for the channel and customer community is that she can come in and focus on their internal IT operations and procedures so that Intel can focus on fixing the processor supply challenges," he said.

Venero said the Intel processor supply shortage has translated into "painful and time consuming" challenges for the channel. "We are spending hours a day trying to allocate inventory, escalate builds and ship products from less time sensitive deals to higher priority projects," he said. "Intel needs to leverage everything they can from technology to labor to operational excellence to resolve the on-going processor supply issues."

Additional reporting by Steve Burke.