HP's Booth: Resignation Not Tied To Sales Results
"My departure was not about Q1 numbers," said David Booth, senior vice president and U.S. country manager for the Technology Solutions Group (TSG) at HP, who abruptly resigned late last week.
Booth said he will remain at HP until March 15 and is working closely with Jack Novia, managing director and senior vice president for TSG Americas, to facilitate a transition. Novia will assume Booth's role on an interim basis.
"I am going to actively look for a new role. My intention is to stay in the industry," Booth said.
Solution providers were caught off guard by Booth's departure and speculated that his resignation might have stemmed from not meeting internal growth goals for enterprise products. TSG's enterprise storage and servers business grew 5 percent year over year to $4.5 billion for the first quarter ended Jan. 31. Operating profit for the period was $416 million.
In the first-quarter earnings conference call, however, HP Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd expressed disappointment with the vendor's storage and business-critical systems sales. For example, while storage grew 3 percent year over year, "we need to drive stronger top-line results in this business," Hurd said.
Booth told CRN Tuesday, "HP is a great company going in a great direction. There is a lot going on in the industry, and this is a great time to take the next step in my career. I wanted to leave HP on amicable terms that show HP all the respect I feel for them after 20 years of service."
He said he's confident in Hurd's leadership and where the CEO is steering HP.
"HP is more committed to our business partners than we've ever been," Booth said. "TSG partners [i.e. HP enterprise solution providers] under Frank Rauch [vice president of HP's Solution Partners Organization] are getting even a stronger voice at the table."