Nutanix has added former Intel CTO Greg Lavender to its board of directors to further fuel its expansion efforts.

Lavender's appointment follows leadership roles at Intel, where he headed various units, including the software and advanced technology group, Intel Labs, and Intel IT, among others. He left in April with reports at the time suggesting he was retiring.

His appointment also signals Nutanix is now poaching ex-VMware talent alongside its aggressive pursuit of customers frustrated by Broadcom's changes. Prior to his time at Intel, Lavender served as VMware's CTO, where he helped shape the company’s multicloud and modern applications strategy before its acquisition by Broadcom.

The engineering stalwart brings more than 40 years of experience spanning software, cloud, and enterprise infrastructure, having previously held senior leadership roles at Citigroup, Cisco Systems, and Sun Microsystems.

In addition to his role at Nutanix, Lavender also serves on the board of directors at Arista Networks.

“[Lavender] is a technology visionary who has a strategic understanding of the tech stack, generative AI, and other modern, cloud native-based applications, as well as a practical knowledge of how to best serve customers,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, president and CEO of Nutanix. “He will undoubtedly prove invaluable as a member of our Board.”

The ex-Intel, VMware engineering exec joins amid a period of growth for the San Jose, California-based firm.

Nutanix saw revenues rise by 18% for the full fiscal year to $2.54 billion, buoyed by the addition of some 2,700 new customers, its highest in four years.

The vendor has been loudly nipping at VMware’s heels in a bid to take advantage of customer dissatisfaction. Gartner’s recent distributed hybrid infrastructure report placed Nutanix as the nearest “leader” to VMware. CFO Rukmini Sivaraman recently told investors the company expects “mid- to high-three digits” worth of customers per quarter in fiscal year 2026.

Lavender said he was “looking forward” to helping Nutanix serve its customers while helping to accelerate the company’s growth.