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Lenovo waves bye-bye to UK channel director Phelps

Sources cast doubt on vendor's claims he quit for pastures new

Lenovo has told us that long-standing Brit channel director Darren Phelps has quit the organisation, denying claims from sources that he was given the old heave-ho.

“Effective immediately, Darren Phelps, UK and Ireland channel director has decided to move on from his role at Lenovo to pursue new opportunities,” a spokesman stated.

Leaving to tread new pastures is often a euphemism tech vendors use when talking about someone to whom they've just handed a P45. Phelps did not respond to calls for comment.

Sources tell us that Lenovo had amassed relatively high channel inventories in the last couple of quarters, and hadn’t reacted quickly enough to reduce orders.

It is understood that Phelps has been on long-term sick leave related to stress.

Irrespective of hiccups in recent quarters, Phelps helped to steer Lenovo’s local ops up the sales ranks.

The UK is one of the biggest tech markets in Europe, so it could be that newly crowned EMEA chief Eric Cador, who previously battled Lenovo when he was at HP, has decided he wants to instate some of his own people in key roles.

Lenovo said of Phelps: “During his nine years at the company, the last three of which he led the channel business, he was part of the team that drove Lenovo to become the number two PC company in the UK.”

Prior to Lenovo, Phelps was distribution sales manager at Acer and even further back in time he worked for distributors including Think Distribution.

In the interim, Lenovo’s UK and Irish channel will be run by Leigh Saunders, head of mid-market. ®

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