Dr. Lavender brings over 30 years of experience leading global technology organizations across enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, and financial services. Most recently, he served as Chief Technology Officer of Intel Corporation, a multinational semiconductor company, from November 2023 to June 2025, where he led the company s technical strategy and innovation agenda, with a focus on artificial intelligence, software-defined infrastructure, and developer ecosystems. Prior to that, from June 2021 to November 2023, he was Intel s Corporate CTO and General Manager of the Software and Advanced Technology Group, driving modernization across Intel s product portfolio. From January 2018 to June 2021, Dr. Lavender held senior leadership roles, including Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, at VMware, Inc., a virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions company. Earlier in his career, he held senior executive roles at several global technology companies, including Citigroup, Cisco Systems, and Sun Microsystems, with responsibilities spanning cybersecurity, distributed systems, and enterprise IT architecture. Dr. Lavender began his career in academia, serving on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin for 14 years, including three years as Associate Chairman for Academics. He currently serves on the board of directors of Arista Networks, Inc., a multinational networking company, where he contributes to oversight of cloud networking strategy, public company governance, and cybersecurity risk. Dr. Lavender also serves on advisory councils at Virginia Tech and The University of Texas at Austin, where he engages with academic leaders and researchers on emerging technologies, talent development, and innovation in computer science and engineering.