HP Networking Channel Sales Boss Splits For Dell
Armughan Ahmad, who since mid-2010 had been vice president, Americas channel sales for HP networking, is now Dell's vice president, global networking sales. A Dell spokesperson confirmed the move, and that Ahmad is part of Dell's commercial business organization, run by Stephen Felice, Dell president and chief commercial officer.
Dell has had a networking business for 11 years, but until recently, it had relied primarily on OEM relationships. It made a substantial push into networking starting in 2010, having hired the company's first vice president and general manager for networking, Dario Zamarian, and more recently, made several acquisitions -- including of Force10 Networks and SonicWall -- to bolster its networking holdings.
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Ahmad was named to the HP role in June 2010, having joined HP via its acquisition of 3Com earlier that year. Ahmad spent two years at 3Com as vice president, global strategic alliance sales, and before that spent seven year as a sales vice president at Enterasys.
An HP spokesperson confirmed Ahmad 's departure and said Bill Pearson, recently HP director of Americas channel strategy and alliances, has taken Ahmad 's HP Networking post. Pearson reports to Craig Hinkley, vice president, Americas, HP Networking.
HP, which has seen constant executive shifts over the past two years, having just finished a fresh round of changes specific to its newly formed Enterprise Group. Stephen DiFranco, the former channel chief for HP's Personal Systems Group, is now vice president, Americas Enterprise channels, OEMs and alliances. The channel chiefs in it HP's Printers and Personal Systems Group, which was created by merging PPG and ISG, are Mike Parrottino and Scott Dunsire.
HP Networking, which is part of HP Enterprise Group, has itself seen a number of changes in the past year. Bethany Mayer was named senior vice president and general manager of the unit in October 2011, while Kevin Hooper became vice president, HP Networking sales, Americas, in February.