Lenovo Grabs Another Dell Exec for Asia

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Aug 31, 20062 mins

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Lenovo Group has snagged a fifth Dell executive in two weeks to help run its business in Asia.

On Thursday Lenovo appointed Gerry Smith, 43, as senior vice president of its global supply chain, effective immediately. Smith was previously vice president in charge of Dell’s Singapore design center and its displays unit. He replaces Liu Jun, who ran Lenovo’s supply chain group for the past year and is taking a year’s sabbatical, the company said.

Smith is the latest in a string of executives whom Lenovo has poached from Dell as it tries to beef up its PC business worldwide.

Last week, Lenovo appointed Dell’s vice president of services for Asia-Pacific and Japan, Christopher Askew, to head a new services unit. A few days earlier, it named David Schmook, a Dell vice president of marketing, to run a new business unit in Singapore that develops sales and product strategies.

A week before that, Lenovo hired David Miller, formerly president of Dell China, to become its president for Asia Pacific. And it named Sotaro Amano, Dell’s corporate director for home and business sales in Japan, to be president of Lenovo Japan.

Lenovo’s president and chief executive officer, Bill Amelio, also joined the company from Dell, where he was senior vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan.

Dell, in Round Rock, Texas, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning.

Lenovo bought IBM’s computer business in 2005, placing it third among PC makers behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. It has struggled to compete since then, reporting poor financials and laying off workers. Dell has also been struggling lately, reporting a decline in profit of more than 50 percent for its most recent quarter.

Separately on Thursday, Dell said it will open a new call center in the Philippines early next year to provide additional tech support for U.S. customers.

-James Niccolai, IDG News Service (Paris Bureau)

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