Caterpillar (CAT, Financial), a global leader in construction machinery, announced the appointment of Christy Pambianchi, Intel's Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, as its new Chief Human Resources Officer. Pambianchi will assume her role at Caterpillar's headquarters in Irving, Texas, starting May 1. This strategic move underscores Caterpillar's commitment to accelerating its digital transformation.
Pambianchi has an impressive track record, having led Intel's global talent acquisition efforts from 2021 to 2024, significantly improving the company's engineer retention rate by 18%. Prior to Intel, she played a key role at Verizon from 2016 to 2021, where she helped establish a 5G talent pool to support the telecom giant's technological transition.
This marks Pambianchi's first venture into heavy industry, where she will address the upskilling needs of Caterpillar's 57,000 employees worldwide. The current HR head, Cheryl Johnson, is set to retire in April after a seven-year tenure. Industry observers are keen to see if Pambianchi can infuse Silicon Valley's innovative culture into traditional manufacturing, especially in emerging fields such as autonomous mining trucks and hydrogen equipment.
