One of the executive leadership question left in the wake of HP’s blockbuster decision to (once again) combine its PSG and IPG divisions has been answered as the company has announced that former Americas PSG chief Stephen DiFranco will return to his channel roots as new Americas channel chief for the enterprise group.
DiFranco was the company’s channel chief on the PSG side from his arrival at HP from Lenovo in 2010, but was “called up” to lead PSG in the Americas last summer when former Americas PSG boss Stephen DeWitt was tapped to lead the company’s webOS business.
DiFranco’s new title is vice president of Americas Enterprise channels, OEM and alliances, and his role will involve managing the newly-formed Enterprise Group’s relationships with VARs, distributors and OEM partners. He’ll report to Rich Geraffo, introduced as the Enterprise Group’s head of sales for the Americas last month.
Other leadership moves include the reassignment of former Americas ESSN chief Randy Seidl and ESSN Americas channel chief Frank Rauch, both of whom will take over similar rules but with an exclusively U.S. focus within the new Enterprise Group.
While the company is rapidly assigning new leadership at all levels for its new structures, a number of questions still remain. In Canada, in particular, it’s yet to be announced how the PSG/IPG integration will impact the roles of those two divisions’ respective channel chiefs, John Cammalleri and Patrick Harrison. And while HP Canada has announced that former IPG chief Lloyd Bryant will head up the combined printing and personal systems group, it has yet to clarify what role former PSG chief Leyland Brown will take in the new organization.
It is clear, though, that Brown remains an important leader for the company. Just days after the introduction of Bryant as PPG chief last month, Brown was a major presence at the VentureTech Network‘s spring invitational in Colorado Springs.
