Diane Bryant joined Intel in 1985 and worked her way up to her role as the President of Intel's successful Data Center Group. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced in early May 2017 that Bryant was taking an extended leave of absence to attend to a family matter. Krzanich said that Bryant would step away for "the next six to eight months," but as many have speculated, it turns out the leave will be permanent.
Now Google has announced that Bryant has joined Google Cloud as Chief Operating Officer. Google released a short statement:
Diane serves on the board of United Technologies. Throughout her career, Diane has worked to mentor and sponsor women in technology.Google Cloud is the most technologically advanced, most highly available, and most open cloud in the world. We are growing at an extraordinary rate as we enable businesses to become smarter with data, increase their agility, collaborate, and secure their information. Diane’s strategic acumen, technical knowledge, and client focus will prove invaluable as we accelerate the scale and reach of Google Cloud.
Bryant's tenure at Intel was highly successful; she piloted the Data Center Group to $17 billion in revenue for 2016. As Krzanich noted in the original announcement of her leave of absence:
DCG [Data Center Group] is a central part of our transformation and corporate strategy to make Intel the driving force of the data revolution. Over the past five years, Diane has transformed DCG from a server-centric group to a business that spans servers, network and storage across all end-user segments, and with product lines and business models that extend beyond the traditional. DCG’s leading products and strategies — driving industry transformations’ to pervasive cloud computing, virtualization of network infrastructure, and adoption of artificial intelligence solutions — have positioned the business to be the growth driver for Intel. I want to thank Diane for her outstanding leadership and I will announce her next role upon her return.
At the time of her leave, Krzanich appointed Navin Shenoy, a familiar face from Intel's Client Computing Group, to serve as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center Group. He has served in the role since Bryant's departure in May 2017.
Bryant's 32-year tenure at Intel also included a role as the Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer. Her tenure as head of Intel's DCG found the group expanding into several new adjacencies as Intel began the three-year transition from its bread-and-butter PC business to a "data-centric" company that relies heavily on data center-driven revenue.
Bryant brings an impressive business resume to Google, but she has also earned widespread respect for her other work, as her bio at Intel made clear:
A tireless advocate for women and underrepresented minorities, Bryant has served as the executive sponsor of the Network of Intel African American Employees and on the technical board of the Anita Borg Institute. She was named among Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, World Affairs and its Global Philanthropy Forum honored Bryant with its Global Citizen Award. Business Insider ranked Bryant #32 in the list of “Silicon Valley 100” of 2016. She is an Intel spokesperson for STEM education, and established the Diane Bryant endowed scholarship fund for Diversity in Engineering at U.C. Davis. In 2017, U.C. Davis honored Bryant with “Outstanding Alumnus of the Year.”
Intel has not yet commented on Bryant's departure.
We are extremely grateful for Diane’s contributions to Intel over the last 32 years, and wish her well with her new opportunity.
EDIT: 7:40PT, 11/30/17-- Added Intel comment
