Ingram Micro is reshuffling its executive leadership team and the changes will affect most markets and all continents. The changes will go into effect 1 August, apart from changes in Latin America, beginning in January 2014.
Ingram Micro CEO Alain Monie said the changes are designed to “take full advantage of the diverse and complementary experience, tenure and skill sets” of the company’s senior execs.
Seagate has shaken up its sales and marketing organisation in EMEA.
The company says that it has made the changes to ensure that it was “optimally positioned” to work with its customers to best address evolving market opportunities across the region. In particular, it wants to take full advantage of its potential in areas such as cloud computing, solid state drives and branded storage solutions.
Joe Fagan has been appointed senior director, Cloud Initiatives, EMEA. In this newly created position he will be responsible for shaping Seagate’s Cloud strategy and engagement in the region.
Fagan joins Seagate from UK storage distributor CMS Peripherals where he was responsible for shaping and delivering the company’s B2B and enterprise storage strategy Seagate said that here he developed and launched the company’s cloud initiative “Cloud Made Simple” in 2009.
He previously held EMEA-wide sales and marketing positions at Maxtor and Adaptec. Fagan will report to Mark Whitby, Seagate’s vice president of EMEA Sales & Marketing and Global Channel Sales.
Bernd Breinbauer has been appointed to the newly created role of director of EMEA SSD Sales with responsibility for developing sales of the company’s comprehensive solid state drive portfolio across the region. Breinbauer was previously sales director for Seagate’s Central Europe region and has also held positions in OEM sales management. Prior to joining Seagate, he worked with Hitachi.
Henk van den Berg, sales director, will take on leadership of Seagate’s Central Europe region in addition to his existing responsibility for Northern Europe in a new combined Northern and Central Europe region.
The company has also named Dimitri Galle as senior director of Sales and Marketing, Branded Products, EMEA. In his new position he will be responsible for sales and marketing of all Seagate-branded retail products across the region. He was previously senior manager, Sales and Marketing, for branded products in the central Europe region.
Separately, Mark Whitby, Seagate’s vice president of EMEA Sales and Marketing since 2009, has also been charged with responsibility for the company’s global distribution channel sales, developing and leading strategy and delivery of the business worldwide.
In his new role as vice president, EMEA Sales & Marketing and Global Channel Sales, Whitby leads a matrix team spread across sales, marketing, product management, pricing and finance to deliver on Seagate’s goals, as well as working to define longer term business planning.
Daisy Group has named Nathan Marke as its new Chief Technology Officer.
The company claims that through both acquisitions and organic growth, over the last four years it has diversified its suite of products and now services 65,000 business customers.
Chief executive officer Matthew Riley said the appointment was “pivotal” for the technology strategy of the business with a key element of the role focused on driving innovation across all Group businesses.
Nathan is said to have almost two decades of experience in the sector and was the former Group CTO of 2e2. He also has the title of technology and marketing director of prime business solutions under his belt. Daisy said his experience meant he bought expertise in systems integration, IT services and communications technologies to the Group.
Nathan said over the past five years he had been working closely with enterprise customers helping them evolve their software and IT services strategies. He said he hoped to bring this experience to the Daisy team.
VIP Computers has announced the appointment of a new Business Development Manager
Graham Herschell has more than ten years experience in the IT industry and is said to bring VIP a huge range of skills and expertise to assist in growing the firm’s customer base as well as increasing sales from existing customers.
He has previously worked for Bridgfords, responsible for business development and Opal Telecom where he started off as a mobile and data support engineer moving onto team manager looking after a large team of office and field based engineers.
Herschell said he was “excited” to be working for the distie and boasted he had built up a strong knowledge of how to promote business as well as spotting opportunities for potential deals and getting them closed.
Anthony McKenzie, Sales Manager at VIP Computers said Herschell would be “instrumental in managing many of our key accounts moving forward and bringing more on board.”
Invotec Group has announced that it has appointed a new sales account manager.
The European manufacturer of time critical, high technology PCBs has said John Fitzpatrick will join its payroll and will be responsible for the South East region.
John apparently has over 25 years’ experience working with OEMs and CEMs as well as an in-depth understanding of customer requirements, from component to complete system level, across a range of market sectors, including automotive, aerospace, defence, security, rail and electronic manufacturing.
As he is based in West Sussex, John is also said to have an extensive local knowledge of the South East area.
Matt Bowman, Invotec Group Sales Director, said John had just the kind of knowledge and experience that the company was looking for to “strengthen” its sales and account management function.
The blur Group has announced two new sales appointments, aimed at helping to drive its business.
The technology company has made Dan Murphy and Sat Ramewal (not pictured) as Head of Sales for the US and EMEA respectively.
The pair, who will report to Gerry Gross, Global Head of Sales are said to come to the company boasting a “impressive pedigrees in the IT and Communications Industry” with over 20 years collective experience in senior management positions.
Sat was most recently Commercial Director at D&B responsible for a complete turnaround of a declining business unit into one of double digit growth following senior business development roles at Colt and KPNQwest, while Dan, originally from the UK, was most recently Sales Director at Enable Labs in New York.
Commenting on the appointments, Philip Letts, blur Group CEO, said “Both Sat and Dan come to blur with experience of platform sales and developing large customers and sales teams.
“After launching 3.0 in April we’re now well on the way to establishing the sales teams who can ensure enterprise adoption and further scale blur’s rapid growth. “
Sharp has announced that it has made Kozo Takahashi its new president and CEO.
The Japanese company, which last week reported a loss of $5.4 billion, has said that the current executive vice president will take the president and CEO title from 25 June.
The announcement as part of a business reorganisation aimed at helping the company return to a profit in March 2014.
The company also needs to make repayments for a new loan in September.
Last week it was reported that the company was planning to axe 5,000 of its 51,000 workers over the next three years in China and Malaysia as well as halving the number of workers at its head offices and cutting its board members by half.
Google is planning to revamp its Google Wallet digital payments platform at Google I/O. However, it seems plans for a physical credit card have been shelved, at least for the time being.
According to AllThingsD, Google informed its staff that the card was ditched in a memo circulated after Google Wallet head Osama Bedier announced he is leaving the company.
However, although the card is history, Wallet is about to get a small revamp. Google will announce a number of changes at I/O, including an update to its rewards programme, more offers and loyalty points, along with the addition of more merchants.
Without a physical card though, Google Wallet will still rely solely on NFC technology, which hasn’t taken off yet. It was hoped that a proper card could push Google Wallet to the next level, but now it seems Google is rethinking its approach. Google doesn’t want to become a bank, or the next Visa. It wants to coexist with existing players and tap their vast infrastructure.
On the gossipy side, sources told AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes that Google CEO Larry Page pulled the plug on the card launch after he witnessed a glitchy demo last week. Apparently Page had long been sceptical of a physical card and the buggy demo was the last straw.
Tom Mockridge has been named as the new chief executive of Virgin.
The ex head of the UK arm of News International will join the rival after the $15.75 billion acquisition by US cable company Liberty Global completes.
Mockridge was previously chief executive of European Television operations, chief executive of Sky Italia and and most recently chief executive of News International.
He will succeed Neil Berkett, who will continue in his role as CEO of Virgin Media until closing of the transaction, having previously announced his intention to retire from Virgin Media upon closing the deal.
Mike Fries, President and CEO of Liberty Global, said the new recruit would bring experience into his new role, admitting he’d know him for 15 years.
Best Buy has decided to unload its 50 percent share in Best Buy Europe to its joint venture partner Carphone Warehouse in a deal valued at £500 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, Best Buy will receive £420 million in cash and £80 million in Carphone Warehouse stock, subject to a 12-month lock-up restriction. Best Buy also agreed to pay Carphone Warehouse £29 million to settle obligations stemming from existing agreements, some of which will be terminated when the outfits close the deal.
The transaction has already been approved by the boards of both companies and it should be finalized by June 2013.
“After reviewing the business and spending time with our partners, we concluded that the timing and economics were right to enter into this agreement with CPW,” said Hubert Joly, president and chief executive officer of Best Buy.
Joly went on to say that the transaction will allow Best Buy to simplify its business, improve its return on invested capital and strengthen its balance sheet.
“Each international market is different and the sale of our European operations should not suggest any similar action in our other international businesses,” said Joly.
The joint venture was launched in 2008, with Best Buy paying $2.15 billion for its share of Best Buy Europe.
Ingram Micro has appointed Gina Mastantuono as executive vice president of finance.
Mastantuono will now be responsible for the company’s financial planning, analysis, controllership, SEC reporting, treasury and tax and will report directly to Bill Humes , chief operating and financial officer at Ingram Micro.
Prior to joining Ingram Micro, Mastantuono was at Revlon for six years, serving most recently as senior vice president, chief accounting officer, controller and international chief financial officer.
Before Revlon, she held various finance executive roles, including four years with InterActive and four years with Triarc Companies,
She is also a Certified Public Accountant and has 21 years of finance experience.
Mastantuono attended the State University of New York, where she earned a bachelor’s of science degree in accounting and business administration.
Phil Jones has been named as the managing director of Brother UK.
The announcement follows Mr Jones’ promotion in March 2012 to deputy MD, a role that saw him take responsibility for the company’s 180-strong workforce and £100 million of sales.
Jones has worked his way up through the company, originally joining as a fax machine salesman in 1995, later becoming sales & marketing director.
Commenting on the appointment, Mr Jones said he was “thrilled” to be given the responsibility to lead Brother in the UK as MD.
“Having joined the business back in the early 1990s with little leadership or business management experience, my journey really underlines Brother’s commitment to investing in people and backing talent – a culture that I’m determined to continue building during my tenure,” he added.
Mr Jones, 45, lives in Warrington with his wife and two teenage children. He is a regular speaker and blogger on leadership, innovation and personal growth and a keen road cyclist, it is claimed.
Microsoft has confirmed that it has made changes to its UK channel senior management team.
The company released a statement late yesterday afternoon following rumours of the shake up, confirming that Clare Barclay, had been promoted from her current position as Senior Director of SMB to General Manager of SMS&P Small, Medium Solutions and Partner Group).
Barclay, who in February told ChannelEye that Microsoft’s resellers where embracing the cloud, replaces Barry Ridgway who has accepted a new role as the SMSG (Sales, Marketing, Services Group) Vice-President for Microsoft in Latin America.
Clare joined Microsoft in 1998 as a Marketing Manager in SMS&P, having come directly from the Channel. She then progressed to roles within Partner Sales, prior to broadening her career in Services and EMEA.
She said in a statement she was “thrilled to be given the opportunity to lead the SMS&P business and work more closely with Partners and Customers”.
However, it’s not good news for all Microsoft’s employees. Yesterday one of the company’s creative directors at Xbox resigned following a Twitter mishap
Adam Orth, who had worked at the company since February last year, was forced to voluntarily resign after Game Informer shared a rumour that the next Xbox would require an active internet connection at all times, last week.
Orth then followed up the article making some very open comments on the matter on Twitter.
His comments seemed to have upset head honchos at the company, which, according to Game Informer, read him his rights before forcing him out.
Avnet has waved goodbye to Fabian von Kuenheim.
The CEO of Magirus, which was acquired by the distie in October last year, is said to be moving on to pursue “new entrepreneurial challenges”.
Avnet said in a statement that von Kuenheim had played a key role in the initial integration of Magirus into the company. It added that he would continue to provide advisory support to Avnet for a transitional period until September 2013.
Graeme Watt, president of Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA said the Magirus integration was going to plan and the company was “making good progress” on realising the short- and long-term goals it had set out to bring together the two companies.
He said he was grateful to the work von Kuenheim had done to help with this.
von Kuenheim, who has been with Magirus for 25 years, thanked his staff and said he was proud of what the company had achieved.
Acronis has taken on Craig Dynes as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Dynes will join the data company from his previous role as CFO and SVP of Pegasystems, bringing 30 years of experience to his new role.
Dynes will be responsible for directing Acronis’ long-term strategic growth investments and providing global leadership for financial planning, administrative and business planning, accounting and budgeting requirements.
Acronis said that Dynes’ “extensive background in all aspects of finance”, including treasury, strategic planning, acquisitions and business model transformation made “him a key member of the senior management team”.
Dynes joined Pegasystems in 2006. From 2004 to 2006, he served as CFO of Demandware, at that time a venture-backed enterprise software firm. Prior to that he served as President and CEO of Narad Networks, a manufacturer of equipment for the cable television industry from 2003 to 2004.
From 1997 to 2002, Dynes served as CFO of SilverStream Software, an application development software company. He is also claimed to have held senior financial positions at Sybase and Powersoft.
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