Tom Guagliardi, vice president of sales and vendor management, D&H Canada
D&H Canada is starting 2020 with a new leader, as the Harrisburg, PA-based distributor has appointed Tom Guagliardi as the company’s new vice president of sales and vendor management for Canada.
Roy Rivers, who had been at the helm for the company in Canada since longtime leader Greg Tobin stepped back at the beginning of 2019, is now vice president of field sales and will report to Guagliardi. Also reporting to Guagliardi will be the Canada-focused inside sales team based in the U.S., and Chris Ralston, director of vendor management.
Rivers called Guagliardi “the perfect fit” to head up Canadian operations, and praise his role in leading growth for the distributor south of the border.
“He’s been responsible for growing our Lenovo business, our Dell business,” Rivers said. “Acer, Intel, Microsoft. He’s been great at growing the SMB business.”
Rivers said Guagliardi will split his time evenly between Canadian headquarters in Brampton, Ont., and the company’s headquarters in Harrisburg. And that will be something of a homecoming for the executive, who grew up in Toronto, including education at Toronto’s Ryerson University.
With Guagliardi owning profitability and go-to-market for Canada, Rivers said he’ll be free to “spend more time with customers, and feed it back to Tom and the team.”
He also suggested Guagliardi’s familiarity with, and seat in, operations at headquarters, will help the distributor bring to Canada some of the ideas and programs that are developed in the States.
“Because we’re small and can adapt quickly, we can build quickly and go to market fast,” Rivers said.
Guagliardi was heavily involved in the distributor’s meeting at last week’s CES in Las Vegas, Rivers said, and now by early next month will be meeting with key customers and vendors in Canada to get further acquainted with Canadian operations and relationships.
Roy Rivers, vice president of field sales, D&H Canada
Rivers said Guagliardi coming aboard is about enabling further growth, which is always a key metric for D&H. He arrives on the heels of a very successful calendar 2019, in which the company overall posted double-digit growth, including growth north of 20 percent in the company’s key SMB-focused reseller segment. Rivers said Guagliardi’s appointment is just one indicator that the distributor still sees additional growth potential in Canada, and that “more investment is coming.”
“We see Canada as having a ton of upside growth,” Rivers said. “We believe we can push those numbers even faster and higher than in the U.S., and we’ve been doing that. That’s part of why Tom is here.”
