Peter McGarahan

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. Peter was also presented with the HDI 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the HDI Hall of Fame in 2017. 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 32 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.

He 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.

Peter 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, Peter was inducted into the Pink Elephant IT Service Management Hall of Fame in 2023 for his significant contributions and long-standing commitment to IT Service Management. Pete has authored countless industry white papers, position papers and articles. Peter sets on the Strategic Advisory Boards for HP, HDI and UCI Customer Experience. As a practitioner, product manager and support industry analyst and expert, McGarahan has left his service signature on the support industry/community.