Gelsinger anointed Intel CTO

New job for coming man

Intel, one of the world's great technology companies, made do without a CTO for 33 years. How did it manage?

It's got one now - a man who looks like he's being groomed for the top. Intel bigwig Pat Gelsinger is being fitted for an even bigger wig as the company's first Chief Technology Officer.

Gelsinger, 40, he will co-ordinate "many" of Intel's R&D activities through a new outfit called the the Corporate Technology Group.

Gelsinger reports directly to Craig Barrett, group CEO. New job, direct access to the top guy will make him a favourite for promotion, next-but-one-time, to the Intel CEO role.

We base this assumption on the USSR Politburo official photograph theory, otherwise known as Next Door's Law. The publication of the annual pic sent 'experts' into a frenzy to work out who was in and who was out. The nearer the politician was to the Secretary, the more powerful he was deemed to be.

Today's press release announcing Gelsinger's promotion shows to us, any rate, that he could go all the way. ®