Just months after losing 10% of its workforce in a mass layoff, and mere days since it came to light that employees were being asked to take unpaid leave to avoid additional cuts, Dell is now facing another loss: Kevin Kettler, the company's Chief Technology Officer, is cashing in his chips and going home.

Kettler, who has been with the computer giant since 1996, is no run-of-the-mill geek: he's a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a doctorate in Electrical Engineering, and spent twelve years with IBM prior to joining Dell. He spearheaded Dell's push in favor of the Blue-ray format, and was known to the Linux/Open Source community for, among other things, his keynote speech at the 2006 LinuxWorld Expo, which focused on virtualization and Linux.

His retirement, which has apparently been expected internally for some time, does not yet have a set date, but a Dell spokesman indicated it would be within "the next few months." The company maintains that it is not, however, part of the company's efforts to revitalize, but rather a decision to focus on family and other pursuits. Kettler is involved with Austin's ME Television, Charity Partners of Austin, and reportedly has a stake in an un-named Austin wine bar. We suspect corks will most certainly be popping when the big day finally comes.