Pete McGarahan, Senior Director, Workplace & Collaboration Services, IT , First American Financial
Peter McGarahan is the Senior Director of Workplace & Collaboration
Services for First American Financial and an IT Service Leader and
Customer Advocate. At HDI SupportWorld 2020, the First American IT
Service Desk was honored with 2 Industry Awards; one for Best Use of
Technology and another for the Best Service and Support Organization.
Pete was also presented with the HDI 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.
He is an industry expert and thought leader in global IT Service
Management Strategy, Structure, People, Processes and Tools. He was
the founder of McGarahan & Associates and offers 37 years of business,
IT, and service leadership experience. His thought leadership has
influenced the maturity and image of the service and support industry. His
passion for customer service led the Taco Bell support organization to
achieve the Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Award in 1995. IT
Support News named him one of the "Top 25 Professionals in the Service
and Support Industry" in 1999. Support professionals voted McGarahan
"The Legend of the Year" in 2002 and again in 2004 at the Help Desk
Professionals conference for his endless energy, mentoring and leadership
coaching. Pete began his professional IT career at PepsiCo. He brought
many innovations to the organization's IT structure. He was then
transferred to Taco Bell, where he divided his tenure between IT and
Business Planning. He was accountable for technology planning and
service delivery for all IT services to the brand's 4,500 restaurants, regional
and corporate offices. Pete later served as Director of Marketing for the
Vantive Corporation and Executive Director of Help Desk Institute (HDI)
before joining STI Knowledge and Help Desk 2000 in 1997. As Executive
Industry Fellow, Vice President of Business Development and Chief
Marketing Officer for STI, Pete managed Analyst Relationships, which led
to the company's achieving leadership placement in the Gartner Help Desk
Outsourcing Magic Quadrants two years in a row. In addition, Pete has
authored countless industry white papers, position papers and articles. As
a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert,
McGarahan has left his service signature on the support industry /
community. Melissa, his wife of 25 years, Connor and Kayleigh live in
Yorba Linda, CA.