HP CIO Randy Mott has leveraged his extensive network of former Wal-Mart colleagues in hiring highly regarded former Wal-Mart CIO Linda Dillman as SVP of global IT. Dillman adds another very big brain to the world-class IT team at HP, which under Mott has completed an extraordinary three-year transformation.Most recently Wal-Mart's EVP for benefits and risk management, Dillman will lead HP's IT teams "responsible for the company's outsourcing services business and a newly created group supporting global functions such as corporate administration and shared services, finance, global real estate, and human resources," the company said.

The HP statement emphasized not only Dillman's unique experiences at Wal-Mart, which is widely recognized as having one of the world's most sophisticated IT and logistics operations, but also other top IT executives Mott has recruited in his four years at Hewlett-Packard, which he joined after 20 years at Wal-Mart and then four years at Dell.

"Linda is an exceptional leader who makes a great addition to the global IT team for HP," said Mott in the company statement. "She has broad IT and business experience, from integrations related to acquisitions to aligning global applications development to business priorities, and a passion for serving customers."

HP then said that Dillman joins "a strong, established global IT leadership team that recently accomplished its three-year global transformation plans on time and budget. The diverse team includes senior IT executives from a range of industries and Fortune 50 companies, with most having been on board since the IT organization began its transformation in 2005."

It's interesting to note that of all Dillman's wide range of capabilities and experiences, the first one cited by Mott was "from integrations related to acquisitions." We'll keep our eyes open to see how long it takes HP to put that expertise to use.