Dell's CTO Kevin Kettler Retires

According to the latest reports on the Web, Kevin Kettler, chief technology officer at Dell, plans to step down from his position. It seems that his decision has not been influenced by the current, company-wide reorganization, being instead prompted simply by the desire to concentrate on his family life and to take care of local activities around his hometown Austin, Texas.

 

The decision was confirmed by Dell's David Frink, who said that, “[Kettler] wants to take time to focus on his family and his many other varied interests beyond Dell.” No information regarding the person that will replace the CTO has been unveiled yet. Kettler joined the computer maker back in 1996, and worked the workstation division at that time.

 

On the other hand, Kettler might not miss his activities at Dell that much. Aside from running a charitable foundation that he co-founded, he also has investments in a music television station, along with being involved in a local wine bar. Quite obviously, he'll have a lot of things to do to keep him busy throughout his retirement.

 

Kettler's opinions on technology are said to not have always been the most popular ones, mainly when it came to some of his stands on Vista's popularity in businesses, which were considered a little over-optimistic. Even so, he also took some important decisions while with Dell, including supporting the Blu-Ray format over HD-DVD even in the early days of the former.

 

The question that arises now is whether Dell, back under the hand of founder Michael Dell, will try to bring someone new as CTO, in order to try and shake a rather stagnant market with some bold technology decisions, or whether it will have that position be filled by a long-time company man, who would stick to the old and, as some say, “boring” line of products.