Stephen DiFranco, the former HP channel chief who has been in limbo since the merging of the company's printer and PC divisions, has been named to lead Americas channels for the recently formed Enterprise Group, HP confirmed Wednesday.
As vice president of Americas Enterprise channels, OEMs and alliances, DiFranco will be responsible for the Enterprise Group's relationships with VARs, distributors, OEM integrators, technical service providers and systems integrators, an HP spokesperson told CRN. He is reporting to Rich Geraffo, who last month was named head of Americas sales for the Enterprise Group.
DiFranco was previously senior vice president and general manager of HP's Personal Systems Group. But last month, when HP named channel leaders for its Printers and Personal Systems (PPS) division, DiFranco was not assigned a position, although John Solomon, senior vice president and general manager of PPS, said he would "continue to play a key leadership role" at HP.
[Related: HP Combines PC, Printer Divisions, Expands Donatelli's Role]
One longtime PSG partner believes that HP's enterprise-focused partners will benefit from DiFranco's appointment. "DiFranco is channel friendly regardless of what he sells," Rick Chernick, CEO of Camera Corner Connecting Point, a Green Bay, Wis.-based solution provider and HP partner, told CRN.
In another move, Frank Rauch has been named vice president of U.S. channels in HP's Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking division, now part of the Enterprise Group. In his previous role, Rauch was responsible for ESSN's overall Americas business, but an HP spokesperson told CRN that he was "primarily focused on the U.S."
"Each country has a channels sales team, and Frank heads that up in the U.S.," said the HP spokesperson.
Rauch is reporting to Randy Seidl, former senior vice president of ESSN's Americas business, who is now heading up the Enterprise Group's U.S. operations.
HP's Enterprise Group, formed in March as part of CEO Meg Whitman's ongoing campaign to simplify the company's operations, consists of ESSN, HP's global accounts sales organization and HP Technology Services, and is led by former ESSN chief Dave Donatelli.
HP earlier this month shuffled regional and country sales leadership in the Enterprise Group, but left the existing ESSN structure mostly intact.
