HP has named former Wal-Mart CIO Linda Dillman as their senior VP of Global Information Technology.

Dillman is something of an HP success story, having worked at the company as a lowly computer operator before leaving to take on other responsibilities at a local market chain that was soon bought out by Wal-Mart, where she worked her way steadily up the ladder, passing through CIO to end up as executive vice president of benefits and risk management.

Dillman looks like a good re-hire for HP at this point, as the company continues to face challenges in the transforming IT hardware and services environment. Bringing in a former alumnus who has had broad business world experience outside the IT industry in the interim is no bad thing, particularly when much of that experience has been with as successful a company as Wal-Mart.