By: Diane Stirling
(315) 443-8975
A member of the School of Information Studies (iSchool) Board of Advisors who also is an iSchool graduate has been named president of Intel India and general manager of Intel Architecture Group, India.
Kumud (Madhok) Srinivasan, who graduated with a master's degree from the iSchool in 1984 and who has been a Board of Advisors member since 2010, has transitioned into her new role and will be moving to India in January, where she will be based in Bangalore.
The role of divisional president at a multinational, world-leading information company is one that both her iSchool education and her progression through Intel’s management ranks prepared her well for, according to Srinivasan. “I think that the iSchool curriculum brings together a very interesting blend of technical skills with the behavioral soft skills, and I think that is important. It has served me well as I have moved through my own career, with respect to the progression of expertise and also with respect to my management responsibilities,” she explained.
Srinivasan has spent the past 25 years in the IT world, she said, focusing at different times on manufacturing, office, enterprise and design operations within Intel. For the past two years, she has been vice president of information technology and general manager of IT for Silicon, Software & Services at Intel. There, she led the delivery of IT solutions to Intel’s hardware and software engineers via a globally distributed organization of some 1,000 employees. Prior to that, she served two years as Vice President and General Manager, IT Engineering. In that capacity, she led the IT Engineering division to deliver office computing solutions to Intel’s employees and the underlying systems and technologies of IT’s enterprise solutions. Before that, she was the company’s director of automation, responsible for the development of automation capabilities across Intel's global factory network.
As president of Intel India, Srinivasan will oversee engineering and innovation for market development and manage relationships with government, industry and academia. One of her top priorities, she said, is assuring “a smooth handoff,” both with company employees and with the numerous institutional and governmental relationships that already are established. “My priority is to ensure that the company can build on the very strong foundation that I’m going to be inheriting,” Srinivasan noted. “I’m looking forward to going there and to working with my team to discover what some of the new opportunities might be,” she added.
Assuming this new role is “thrilling and exciting” professionally, Srinivasan acknowledged. “Having progressed through Intel’s management ranks, from being an individual contributor to a general manager, this position seems like the next step in a natural progression,” she said. The move also has personal meaning beyond its career significance, since it will “take me back to my cultural roots,” she noted. The new Intel president was born and raised in Calcutta and graduated from the University of Calcutta in 1981 with a degree in economics. After Syracuse, she also pursued Ph.D. studies at University of California Berkley’s information science school.
Throughout her varied career steps, Srinivasan said she has “tried to ensure that I’m growing in my career both in respect to my technical expertise and my management abilities, and I did call upon my technical and behavioral skills acquired while in the iSchool.” Her years at Syracuse, when she was a student alongside now-Dean Elizabeth D. Liddy, “had a strong impression on me, since those were my most formative years.” Srinivasan also recalled the friendship that developed between them starting then. “I was a new grad student straight from India, and Liz was very supportive. I remember fondly her gracious hospitality,” Kumud added. With many return trips to the United States planned during her term in Bangalore, Srinivasan said she is pleased she will be able to continue serving as a member of the iSchool’s Board of Advisors, retaining that iSchool connection as well.
Intel is regarded as a world leader in computing innovation, designing and building essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Its Indian operation has 3,500 employees, and is the largest non-manufacturing component of the company outside of the United States.
Prior to joining Intel, Srinivasan served as a programmer/analyst at Chevron Corp. She is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of MokaFive, an emerging leader in the growing desktop virtualization industry.