AWS Nabs Intel’s Former Cloud VP As Its New Global CMO

Intel’s former cloud service provider leader has joined Amazon Web Services as its new global Chief Marketing Officer, tasked with driving AWS’s marketing and customer-centric approach.

Amazon Web Services has hired Intel’s former cloud services leader Raejeanne Skillern as its new global Chief Marketing Officer.

“We are excited to have her on board, and we are confident that her vast experience and expertise will significantly impact AWS,” Matt Garman, senior vice president of AWS Sales and Marketing, wrote in a memo to employees this week.

Raejeanne Skillern spent over 15 years at Intel, most recently as vice president of Intel’s Cloud Service Provider Business where she managed Intel’s business and products for cloud infrastructure deployments. She led the team that worked with the world’s largest cloud providers—AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud—to ensure that Intel’s data center portfolio of products are optimized.

Garman said that in Skillern’s new role, “She will play a pivotal part in driving AWS’s growth, ensuring a customer-centric approach, while also continuing to build and cultivate a high-performing, multi-disciplinary marketing team.”

[Related: AWS, Microsoft, Google Battle For $169B Cloud Services Market: IDC]

“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Amazon Web Services!” said Skillern in a recent LinkedIn post.

Her LinkedIn post has quickly received more than 250 comments, including dozens of AWS and Intel executives congratulating her on the new role at Seattle-based AWS. Skillern is set to lead the company’s marketing initiatives, including around artificial intelligence and generative AI.

AWS’ New CMO

The $85 billion worldwide cloud market share leader hired Skillern after nearly a year since its former CMO, Rachel Thornton, left in September 2022. Thornton is now the CMO of data automation platform provider Fivetran.

Skillern first joined Intel in 2002 as director of enterprise server demand creation marketing. She climbed up the executive ladder at Intel over the years to become marketing director for big data and cloud computing in 2008, according to her LinkedIn profile.

In 2014, Skillern was appointed vice president of Intel’s Cloud Service Provider Businesses. She remained in that role until 2019 when she left the semiconductor company to join electronics manufacturer Flex.

She has been President of Flex’s Communications and Enterprise Compute group, which focuses on data center and telecommunication networking products, for the past several years.

AWS’ Generative AI Push

Skillern joins AWS as the cloud giant becomes laser focused on driving AI innovation and new customer traction.

From a new $100 million generative AI innovation center to the unveiling of AWS AppFabric, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky has been traveling the world this year to spread his company’s bullish message and new investments in generative AI.

“As generative AI gains momentum across industries, customers ask us how they can embrace this technology without risking data privacy or IP,” said the AWS CEO in a LinkedIn post this month. “We’re addressing that challenge with Amazon Bedrock, which ensures customer data is encrypted and not used for training models. We’re also giving customers in every industry a wide range of tools and models to use, along with guidance from AWS experts to help them tailor a model to their specific needs.”

Skillern will play a key role in marketing AWS generative AI charge in 2023.