28 January 2008
by Paul Kunert
Several major manufacturers have made, or are planning to make, changes to senior management in the UK before the year gets started in earnest.
Nearly one and a half years after being made partner director for the UK and Ireland at EMC (MicroScope 18 September 2006), Terry Beale has returned to his previous role as head of public sector sales
The move was confirmed by Nigel Ghent, marketing director for the UK and Ireland at EMC, with Chris Gould, who looked after the Fujitsu Siemens and Fujitsu Services accounts, replacing him.
"The change was based on the overall picture of the business and how we deploy resources in the parts of the business most needed," said Ghent, who insisted channel sales were healthy and a growing portion of EMC.
Ghent himself will also be changing roles after nine years and will become director of database marketing EMEA.
In the PC market, Chris Wells, head of Lenovo UK and Ireland, will step down from his position for personal reasons, amid suggestions from channel sources he did not click with the operation and sales had been off-target.
But Milko van Duijl, president at Lenovo EMEA, said in a statement sent to MicroScope, "It is with regret that I inform you Chris Wells has decided to leave Lenovo; the decision has been made for personal reasons".
In the UK PC market during 2007, Lenovo’s performance was a little inconsistent said Eszter Morvay, senior research analyst at IDC, though it increased PC market share from 2.7 per cent in the first quarter to 3.1 per cent by year-end.
Elsewhere in the volume space, Semmy Lewit, UK country manager at Acer, is expected to move to another region within the Taiwanese vendor but the company refused to confirm his departure at the time of going to press.
A spokesman at Acer said an announcement was pending regarding a new EMEA organisation but refused to comment further.
