VMware has made a significant restructuring of its North American operations, which will see the Western Field Ops head Corey Hutchison also run VMware Canada enterprise sales, and the Canadian commercial business run by Brandon Sweeney, Vice President, U.S. Commercial Business Unit.

VMware has decided to run Canada on a North American model, which will see company’s Canadian business run from the U.S. rather than through a Canadian-based senior executive. Eric Gales, who has been Canadian country manager since 2012, is leaving the company.

In his stead, two American-based executives will run things in Canada. Corey Hutchison, who had been Division Vice President for Western Field Operations for the Enterprise Accounts in the Western Half of the United States, has had Canadian enterprise business added. His new title is Division Vice-President, Select West & Canada. All current Canada Regional Sales organizations report directly to him.

Brandon Sweeney, who had been Vice President, U.S. Mid-Market & SMB Business Unit since 2011, has been promoted to Vice President, U.S. Commercial Business Unit. Despite the US-specific title, the new role also gives him responsibility for Commercial class customers in Canada and Latin America, as well as the U.S. SLED market.

The key question here is why the changes were made, and the short answer is, we don’t know. Efforts to get senior VMware officials to comment on the reasons for the change have been unsuccessful, complicated by the fact that the company is now in its quiet period pending the release of its next financial numbers. VMware will say only that the changes are designed to provide customers and partners in Canada with increased access to specialized sales and services resources across VMware’s offerings.

VMware’s strategy is curious because it goes against the grain of the management of Canadian subsidiaries in recent years. Most OEMs of VMware’s market significance have a locally-based country manager in Canada. Lenovo is really the only one that stands out today as an example of such a significant company where decisions are made on a North American model, and where the company has done extremely well in Canada.

It is therefore of extreme interest to understand the reason for the change, whether the decision comes from a belief that the Canadian business can be better managed using the resources of the U.S., or whether the Canadian subsidiary has not delivered the expected results, so things are being shaken up. ChannelBuzz will pass on this information once we know it.