CEO, Intel – 2021-present | CEO, VMware – 2012-2021
There’s a lot of love for Pat Gelsinger in the channel, with one of our 60-strong panel characterising the Intel CEO as “quite simply my hero”, while lauding his ability to touch staff and partners emotionally (see more, bottom).
Having helped boost VMware’s revenues from $4.5bn to nearly $12bn during his nine-year reign, Gelsinger in 2021 exited the virtualisation behemoth to take on his “dream role” as Intel CEO.
The appointment saw him reunite with the chip giant following a 12-year hiatus (he spent the first 30 years of his career there, becoming the youngest vice president in Intel’s history, at aged 32).
Four of the 60 channel leaders we approached for input had Gelsinger in their top five.
Leadership style
Gelsinger leads with professionalism, intellect and passion, according to some of those who had him in their dream team (see below). During a keynote at a Global Leadership Network event last year, Gelsinger proclaimed that “great leaders love their company”.
Killer quote
“Great companies are able to come back from periods of difficulty and challenge and then come back stronger, better and more capable than ever.” (taken from Gelsinger’s first public remarks as Intel CEO).
Low points
While Gelsinger proclaimed upon his arrival as CEO that Intel “has its best days in front of it”, three years on the jury remains out (see here and here for more).
What our panellists said about Gelsinger
Sam Mudd, CEO, Bytes Technology Group
“My rationale for voting Pat Gelsinger in particular, is that he has led with conviction and in his personal and unique way, some of the greatest vendors that have existed over the last few decades. In some cases making sweeping changes or significant acquisitions at VMware and now Intel. His style of leadership is one of utter professionalism and he leads with intellect, is technically astute, whilst exuding passion and people connectivity in a way that is hard to replicate. He touches emotionally staff and partners in a way I have never seen a leader be able to in the past. He is quite simply my hero because I relate to him, understand his moral attitude to life (both family and work).”
Alex Smith, Vice President of Channels, Canalys
“The virtualisation era was lucrative for partners; and probably the last era in infrastructure where partners were clear winners (before cloud computing changed the equation). Like all market leaders, some moves were unpopular with partners – changes in licensing terms, appointing Dell as a distributor, being acquired by Broadcom! But many of these decisions were out of Gelsinger’s hands. In his core reign, VMware established a strong ecosystem of loyal partners that were instrumental to its strategy. Virtualisation was one of those technologies that drove hardware, software, cybersecurity, backup, services – there were lots of opportunities for partners across the industry.”
How did IT Channel Oxygen compile The Century’s Greatest Vendor Leaders? See here
