HPE UK overlord lines up sales generals, gives ra ra speech

The classic management domino affect has reached Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s UK team with new broom Marc Waters naming his sales lieutenants.

Changes started in July when EMEA boss Peter Ryan was made global sales head for the Enterprise Group, he was replaced by UK boss Andy Isherwood who was then succeeded by UK EG boss Waters.

In a memo sent to UK staffers - seen by us - Waters said that following the top level changes he was putting his own team in place.

“Now we have work to do,” he stated, “and the intent is to go fast in setting up to win”. This is a version of CEO Meg Whitman’s meaningless phrase that the ‘future belongs to the fast”.

Pip White, currently commercial, public sector and SMB sales head for EG will lead Global Industry Verticals and Strategic Alliances. Her work, apparently, will involve “developing increased vertical relevance”.

Mark Armstrong will continue to run Technology Services and Mark Farrington the consulting business.

The country director for pre-sales, Sean Brown, is to lead business development for ambiguously named enablement and solutions unit. He is to “bridge” innovative technical capability with a go-to-market plan, so the memo stated.

The channel and service provider segment will still be run by Lee Hughes, while Bob Vickers will remain as head of Aruba UK, and Amanda Hill will lead sales strategy and planning in addition to leading the Office of the MD.

The newly formed Data Centre and Hybrid Cloud unit, run by Iain Stephen across EMEA, will be managed locally by Matt Harris, who currently bosses the UK and Ireland server business for HPE.

“An important part of his remit will be to incubate and accelerate new technology to market. His team will include category management and our infrastructure sales specialists,” said Waters.

The corporate “goal” is pretty straightforward, the UK boss added, “profitable growth and market share gain. To beat the competition and have fun while we win. The EG strategy is clear and relevant. It is our job to understand. To believe. And to confidently articulate our value to our customers and partners”.

It’s enough to make hardcore HPErs want to go for a pint, but as luck would have it, there’s a bar in HPE’s offices so… ®