HP MARKETING GURU... SATJIV CHAHIL

Satjiv Chahil got a nice plug in The Wall Street Journal a few days ago, so I have to plug him since he's been a great supporter of our startup, GoingOn Networks. When we launch, our platform will be running on HP servers that we got in exchange to promote the hell out of HP :) Anyway, the article is a good read.

At H-P, Tech Veteran Has New Challenge: Jazzing Up PC Image

Even in Silicon Valley, where cutting-edge advertising is the norm and marketing geniuses legion, Satjiv Chahil and his résumé stand out.

A native of Punjab, India, 55-year-old Mr. Chahil has worked for more than 30 years in the tech industry, doing stints at the likes of International Business Machines Corp., Sony Corp., Palm Inc. and Apple Computer Inc.

With a penchant for staging big events involving celebrities, he brokered a 1996 partnership between Apple and the movie "Mission: Impossible," released by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures. The movie featured Apple products. At Palm, he teamed up with supermodel Claudia Schiffer to create a Claudia Schiffer edition of the Palm to sell to women. "He has a very rich address book, and he maintains it," says Eric Benhamou, chairman of Palm.

Now the colorful, jet-setting Mr. Chahil, who is often seen matching the color of his turban to the cummerbund of his tuxedo, is immersed in another challenge: turning around Hewlett-Packard Co.'s personal-computer group.

Hired by H-P in September as world-wide marketing chief for the group, his job is to inject some life into the Palo Alto, Calif., company's dull PC brands. Toward that end, he is now getting ready to launch the first prong of his plan. (full article)