Partners Cheer Dell's Steady Hand In EMC Exec Integration Effort

Solution providers say Dell is taking the right approach to the integration of EMC into its organization as it named several executives to key positions ahead of its proposed $67 billion acquisition of the data storage giant.

"It's great to see the two companies co-existing," said Dan Serpico, CEO of FusionStorm, a large Dell and EMC solution provider based in San Francisco. "The bigger question is where the customers line up."

So far, Dell appears to be striking a good balance with its integration decisions, said Stephen Monteros, vice president of sales operations at Dell and EMC partner Sigmanet, Ontario, Calif. "This is a great approach," Monteros said. "They've announced [changes] early with a focus on continuity. This is exactly what is needed to get off on the right foot."

[Related: Dell-EMC Merger Clears U.S. Antitrust Hurdle]

In a memo to the global Dell team filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday afternoon, CEO Michael Dell detailed the new leadership roster, which changes the titles of several key executives, but doesn't exactly shake up the existing teams.

According to the memo, Dell's executive group will include VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger; SecureWorks President and CEO Mike Cote; Pivotal CEO Rob Mee; and Rodney Rogers, CEO of Virtustream.

As for EMC chief executive Joe Tucci, Dell thanks the longtime leader "for his insights and assistance." When the deal was announced in October, Dell said Tucci would stay on as EMC chairman, president and CEO only until the transaction closes.
"I look forward to continuing to work with him on our integration planning," Michael Dell said of Tucci. "There are still critical decisions to be made about a number of important pieces of our new company and some of that work is still ongoing."

Decisions about other executive appointments will be made soon, Dell said.

The execs will be in their new positions as soon as the blockbuster deal closes, which is expected to be sometime between May and October. Sources tell CRN that Dell is targeting the early end of that window to close the transaction. Sources have also told CRN that Dell intends to take a "do no harm" approach to the integration, which could take up to a year to complete.

The first executive mentioned in the memo is Jeremy Burton, EMC's marketing president, who is being made Dell chief marketing officer. Karen Quintos, Dell's current CMO, is being made chief customer officer and will be responsible for "leading revenue and margin-enhancing programs, ensuring a consistent customer experience across multiple channels, and driving strategies to strengthen and build profitable customer relationships," according to the memo. "Karen will also lead Corporate Citizenship, including social responsibility, entrepreneurship and diversity," the memo says.

Rory Read and Howard Elias, Dell and EMC chief operating officers, respectively, before the acquisition deal was announced, have been heading up integration efforts since last fall as co-chief integration officers. They'll continue with those titles after the merger closes, according to the memo.

Dell is organizing its Enterprise Systems Group under President David Goulden, currently CEO of EMC Information Infrastructure. As president of the group, Goulden will be responsible for Dell's server, storage, networking, converged infrastructure and solutions, according to the memo.

Bill Scannell, EMC's global sales chief, will work under Goulden as president of enterprise sales and will lead Dell's global go-to-market organization serving enterprise customers. Also under Goulden are Rodney Rogers, CEO of EMC cloud services powerhouse Virtustream; Amit Yoran, head of RSA; and Rohit Ghai, president of EMC's enterprise content division.

While Scannell heads up enterprise sales, Dell's Marius Haas will continue as president and chief commercial officer, leading global go-to-market for Dell's commercial business, which has historically focused on midmarket and SMB customers.

Steve price continues as chief human resources officer and Rich Rothberg remains as general counsel under the reorganization. Also status quo will be John Swainson, president of Dell Software; Suresh Vaswani, president of Dell Services; and CFO Tom Sweet.

Jeff Clarke, currently Dell vice chairman and head of the company's personal computing operation, will get a slightly new title: vice chairman and president, operations and client solutions. He'll be responsible for global supply chain and end-user computing.

In other executive comings and goings Tuesday, VMware President and COO Carl Eschenbach left the company for a position at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. VMware is 80 percent owned by EMC.

Dell recently cleared a couple of significant hurdles in its bid to acquire EMC. Both the European Union and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have granted the deal unconditional anti-trust approval. EMC shareholders are expected to vote on the transaction in the spring.