Dell replaces execs in global reorg

President, marketing chief depart

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 31st December 2008 15:44 GMT

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Two high-level Dell execs are leaving the PC maker as part of a Meltdown-battling global reorganization.

Mike Cannon, Dell's president of global operations, will retire as of January 31; chief marketing officer Mike Jarvis will depart sometime during the current fiscal quarter - which also retires on January 31.

According to a company statement released today, Cannon was continue to serve as a Dell consultant, and Jarvis will provide "ongoing counsel to Dell through the consulting business that brought him to the company."

Cannon will be succeeded by Jeff Clarke, who will retain his role as head of Dell's business-client product group and assume a new role as vice chairman of global operations.

Erin Nelson - currently head of marketing in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East - will replace Jarvis as chief marketing officer.

The reorg also splits Dell's business-sales group into thirds, each corresponding to a particular customer segment: large enterprise, public sector, and small and medium businesses. Dell's consumer-sales group is already organized in a global fashion.

The new large-enterprise division will be run by Steve Schuckenbrock, the current president of global services and the company's chief information officer. The public-sector division will be headed by Paul Bell, the current president of Dell Americas. And the small- and medium-sized businesses will be overseen by Steve Felice, the current president of Dell Asia-Pacific and Japan.

"In the past two years we have significantly improved our competitiveness, reengineered our supply chain, broadened our product portfolio and introduced Dell to more people in more places than ever before. We have laid the foundation for the transition from a global business that’s run regionally to businesses that are really globally organized," reads a canned statement from chairman and CEO Michael Dell.

The reorg comes as the company seeks to win back the PC sales crown now held by Hewlett-Packard - and fight through a worldwide recession. Dell shares are down nearly 60 per cent over the past year, and the company has cut roughly 13 per cent of its workforce.

When Michael Dell returned to the CEO post in early 2007, after HP nabbed the market top spot, one of his first moves was to hire Mike Cannon as president. ®

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