Mike Parrottino’s appointment as the Hewlett-Packard Co.’s (NYSE: HPQ) new U.S. channel chief is more proof that it’s business as usual at HP, despite the for-sale sign on its Personal Systems Group.
But Parrottino’s promotion leads to more questions at HP Canada, as Parrottino’s new job is that of U.S. channel chief replacing Stephen DiFranco, the vice-president of PSG sales and business management for the Solution Provider Organization (SPO) Americas at HP.
There’s no word if DiFranco will continue to be responsible for the Americas region, which includes Canada. HP’s Canadian channel chief, John Cammalleri, has a dotted-line reporting into DiFranco. Parrottino’s appointment leads to questions as to who is ultimately responsible for HP’s Canadian channel.
In his previous role, Parrottino was responsible for executing HP’s overall PSG go-to-market strategy for partner programs, partner development and training and communications. Prior to that, Parrottino was vice-president of direct reseller channel and agent sales. Parrottino was also the vice-president of the West region of North America SPO for HP. Parrottino has had a long career in the channel. He was the director of worldwide solution partner global alliances at Compaq before the HP merger. He was influencial in Compaq’s ASP joint venture with Cable and Wireless and has held numerous sales positions, including area director of enterprise sales, area director of partner sales and district sales manager and channel account manager.
This past July, before HP droped the bombshell that it was planning to either sell or spin off of PSG and effectively end the TouchPad tablet and WebOS after six weeks on the market, DiFranco was named the new senior vice-president and general manager for the Americas region for PSG replacing Stephen DeWitt, who was named senior vice-president and general manager of the webOS global business unit.
One of DeWitt’s last acts before his move was to name Leyland Brown the new vice-president and general manager of the PSG Canada, based in Mississauga, Ont. Brown replaced Charles Salameh, who was promoted this past February to a position at HP’s mobility division in the U.S. Brown took over on an interim basis as acting PSG Canada chief. One of her responsibilities is to oversee Cammalleri’s group in SPO Canada.
In a previous interview with CDN, DiFranco pointed out that HP PSG is a $40 billion business that’s profitable and the Canadian operation of PSG is also profitable and had one of its best year’s on record under Salameh’s watch.
STORY UPDATE:
Some new information has come to light in regards toHP’s recent announcement that Mike Parrottino is the new U.S. channel chief for Hewlett-Packard Co.’s.
A source close to HP told CDN last night that while Parrottino will be responsible for all of HP’s Personal Systems Group (PSG) channel sales in the U.S. he will not carry a channel chief designation. That title still stays with Stephen DiFranco, who was named senior vice president and general manager for the Americas region of PSG replacing Stephen DeWitt back in mid-July.
The promotion of Parrottino was done to better service PSG and unrelated to the announcement made byLeo Apotheker, HP CEO, that the $40 billion group would be either spun off or sold off, the source added.
Also the Parrottino appointment is not a replacement for DiFranco in the Americas channel chief role. The source said that DiFranco is still looking to find someone to fill this role. DiFranco is still the leader of the Solution Provider Organization in the Americas for HP.
One of the reasons for promoting Parrottino is that HP recognized the business was changing because of the consumerization of the PC and launched a slight restructuring because of this trend eight months ago, according to the same source.
This change has no impact on the Canadian operation for HP. HP’s Canadian channel chief,John Cammalleri, still has a dotted-line reporting into DiFranco. He also has a hardline into Leyland Brown, the newly appointed PSG boss for HP Canada.