A year ago: Intel re-orgs Euro bureau, catches worldwide VP flu

The Great Satan of Human Resources has made changes to its European lineup which mean that old Register pal Hans Geyer has been sent to the US. He leaves his Munich redoubt to be replaced as co-general manager of Intel Europe by unknown exec Rob Eckelman, formerly manager of lentil's channel organisation. Geyer tipped The Register off about a confrontation between him and our 1997 Man of the Year at a famous Etre conference some years ago when Pfeiffer accused Intel of pushing its own brand over its customers' brand. We tipped up, thus giving us a world scoop. Former co-general manager Steve Poole no longer has that post, having moved back to Intel's Swindon office, for personal reasons, we know. Now the unknown Eckelman will co-manage Europe along with royalty in the mysterious shape of The Rt. Hon. Earl Wheatstone, who, we are given to misunderstand, had the title bestowed on him for sterling work inventing the concertina, the microphone, and his famous Bridge. Intel has made some people "Dudes" or "Fellows", which it described as the company's highest ranking technical position. Promoted (demoted?) too are the egregious Louis Burns (passim), Sean Maloney, who we haven't seen for years and years, Patricia Murray and Steven Smith. Burns is director for information technology, and appeared at Eckhard Pfeiffer's famous Computacenter gig last Autumn. He also presided over a downtime in its email system during an ill-fated week in December, we are given to understand. Maloney is a very nice chap which presumably makes him a good fellow. He used to be Grove's right hand man but the last time we met him was in Santa Clara at an embedded exhibition. Ms Patricia Murray is director of human resources at Lentil, which, if FACE Intel is to be believed, makes her not such a good fella. And the nabobs of spin at Intel tell us there are 10 freshly appointed VPs, none of whom we have ever heard of or who seem to be registered readers. They are: Alan C. Baldwin, David M. Cowan, Leslie S. Culbertson, Peter N. Detkin, Jami K. Dover, Shelley L. Floyd, Thomas R. Franz, Avtar K. Saini, Gidu K. Shroff and Edward Y. So. Here are the top 10 - in no particular disorder:-- Pete "I am the Law " Detkin has been appointed a vice president of Legal. As assistant general counsel for Intel, he is responsible for Intel litigation and oversees the management of Intel's patent and trademark departments. He'll have a tough year ahead with the DoJ. Jami "Lots of Dosh" Dover has been appointed a vice president of the Sales and Marketing Group and is a director of Co-op Marketing, responsible for the Intel In$ide(r) program worldwide. $helley "$hareprice" Floyd has been appointed a VP of finance and is in charge of Inve$tor Relation$. Tom "Gulag" Franz was (is?) a general manager of the Embedded Microcomputer Division, based not too far from Irkutsk, as the 747 flies. Avtar "Kalki" Saini is general manager of the Platform Components Division responsible for chipsets for Intel Architecture-based PCs and also co-manages Intel's Graphics Components Division. Gidu "Where's my Silicon" Shroff is director of Materials at Intel. Ed R2-D2 So has been appointed a vice president of the Technology and Manufacturing Group. We note, with chagrin, that no PR people have been appointed fellows, fellas, Dudettes or fellaheen at Intel but remain grateful to that long suffering department for the last line in this worthy release: "Third party marks and brands are property of their respective holders." That means, we suppose, that all these folk get to keep their own names, at least.

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