Former Wal-Mart CIO Dillman Surfaces At HP
Written by Evan SchumanLinda Dillman, who was the retail IT universe’s most powerful executive for years as the Wal-Mart CIO, went relatively quiet in 2006 when she was removed as CIO and given the title of EVP for benefits and risk management at the world’s largest retail chain. Dillman resurfaced Wednesday (Aug. 5) when she left the $401 Billion Wal-Mart executive VP gig to take a Senior VP role with the $118.4 billion Hewlett-Packard.
The former Wal-Mart CIO will report into Randy Mott, the HP CIO. It’s unusual for a retail IT exec to join a vendor and not take a title promotion, especially when the vendor is smaller than the retailer. Then again, when you work at Wal-Mart, every company is a smaller company. And Palo Alto has a few advantages that Arkansas can’t match (but cost of living isn’t one of them). Besides, Mott himself had performed a similar dance, leaving Wal-Mart, where he had served as CIO, to join Dell and then HP.
The mobile challenge is less about supporting the devices and more about having the skill and tenacity to integrate the ordering app into the multitude of POS networks/software iterations. 
-Dan Stiel