Gerry Smith, named head of North American operations for Lenovo in November, is gaining more responsibility.
The world’s No. 2 PC maker is reorganizing all its Americas operations – North and Latin – into an Americas division that Smith will lead.
Lenovo is moving Latin America away from the Asia Pacific group, the company told employees in an email.
Bloomberg news reported the change and noted that the reorganization was confirmed by Lenovo spokesperson Jeffrey Shafer.
The move puts all Americas group in similar time zones and also enables the growing Latin Americas group to coordinate with executives in Morrisville rather than Asia, Lenovo said.
The reorganization takes effect April 1.
The Beijing-based PC-maker’s Latin America business had been grouped with Asia Pacific under Milko Van Duijl.
Lenovo has also announced plans for a new computer factory in Brazil and bought a local maker of PCs, smartphones and tablets as economic growth spurs demand.
“Geographic alignment makes management easier and more effective for all of our leaders and for their teams,” Lenovo said in the e-mail. “We are confident that the efficiency benefits of this change will be significant.”
Latin America and Brazil accounted for the majority of a 1.6 percent decline in third-quarter sales at the Asia-Pacific and Latin America business, Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming said on an earnings conference call Jan. 30.
The $147 million acquisition of Digibras, the maker of CCE brand PCs, “will help accelerate our expansion in the country,” Wong said on the call. The purchase, completed last month, doubled Lenovo’s PC market share in Brazil and boosted its sales ranking to third from seventh.
Lenovo in July announced plans to spend $30 million building a computer factory and a distribution center in Itu, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The unit will have as many as 700 employees in two years, when it’s expected to reach maximum capacity, Lenovo said at the time.
Lenovo operates its executive headquarters in Morrisville.
[LENOVO ARCHIVE: Check out eight years of Lenovo stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]
(Bloomberg contributed to this report.)
