Samsung Hires Digital Channel Exec

Prendergast will be responsible for all U.S. commercial distribution channels and work with resellers, distributors, government buyers and corporate sales. He also will oversee Samsung's IT product lines, including SyncMaster CRT and LCD computer monitors, laser printers, professional plasma and LCD displays, optical disc drives and hard disk drives, the company said.

Prendergast will report directly to T.H. Kim, president of Samsung's Digital Information Technology Division. Samsung has been making an aggressive push into the digital small office/ home office (SOHO) market with a wealth of new products. The company has also beefed up this year its Power Partner Program for its 14,000 partners in North America.

Prendergast, 20-year IT sales and marketing veteran, joins Samsung from Acer America, where he spent the past six years as vice president of U.S. retail channel sales, according to Samsung. In that post, Prendergast started and managed Acer's U.S. retail channel for the Aspire notebooks and desktops, Travelmate C100 Tablet PCs, LCD monitors and PDAs.

He previously held several high-ranking sales and marketing positions at Acer, including managing its distribution channel and end-user sales force. Before joining Acer, Prendergast served in various sales and marketing posts over a 14-year period at Texas Instruments.

Samsung's Digital Information Technology Division is part of the company's U.S. subsidiary, Samsung Electronics America, based in Irvine, Calif.

(Additional Reporting By Steven Burke)