Gerry Smith, a Lenovo executive since 2006 and a former football player, has been handed the Big Blue server “ball.”

It’s up to him to handle the quarterback chores while integration IBM’s x86 service business and related offerings along with 7,500 employees – including 2,000 in the Triangle.

On Tuesday, Lenovo disclosed a major reorganization of its business following last week’s $2.3 billion deal to acquire a good-sized portion of IBM’s server group. And Smith, who already heads Lenovo’s Americas operations, drew the IBM integration assignment.

He will lead “Enterprise,” which focuses on servers and storage.

The three other groups are: PC Business, Mobile Business and Ecosystem/Cloud Services. The reorganization takes effect April 1.

One of the big questions Smith will have to deal with is the impact of the sale on IBM workers. Layoffs in IBM’s hardware group were rumored to be in the planning stages just before the Lenovo deal was announced.

While work is barely underway in developing what a Lenovo spokesperson called a “functional realignment,” the company does see more job opportunities as being possible going forward.

“It’s too early to tell regarding individual positions,” said Milanka Muecke, director of North American Public Relations and Communications, “but on the whole we expect this to be positive for job growth.”

Integrated IBM’s x86 group acquisition certainly can be likened to the 2005 deal in which Lenovo became an international company by acquiring Big Blue’s PC business. (Some 1,800 IBMers in the Triangle were involved in that deal.) Incorporating two companies is never easy, but making this deal more challenging is the fact that the x86 group had fallen on hard times.

Smith’s job will be to turn the group around – and in a market where data center servers have become a commodity (like PCs) he will be one busy play caller.

Track Record

Tackling tough assignments is nothing new for Smith, who serves as a member of Lenovo’s elite Executive Committee that is the chief advisory group for Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing. In Nov. 2012 he left his post as head of the award-winning Supply Chain group to take over Lenovo North America, replacing friend and former footballer David Schmoock. Like Schmoock (who returned to Dell), Smith had been recruited away from Dell by Lenovo in 2006 not too long after Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business. Smith later was named head of Americas as Lenovo reogranized its geographies, reflecting rapid international growth.

When he accepted the North Americas post, Smith declared in an interview: “I’m absolutely ready.”

Smith took the job with a fiery determination that match Yang’s: Make Lenovo the world’s top PC seller.

“I’m not going to make any predictions about when we will be No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 3,” Smith said, “but I am absolutely determined that we will be No. 1 in time.”

And Lenovo has seized that top spot, continuing to grow its sales even as the company diversifies into smartphones and tablets plus servers. Smith has been actively involved in developing smartphone strategy and was among executives cited recently as saying Lenovo wasn’t quite ready to enter the cluttered American market.

But Lenovo believes the time is right to strike in servers.

Assuming the deal is approved later this year, Lenovo will become a global contender for business. Lenovo executives estimate the deal accelerates its growth plans by five years.

And Smith is calling signals with Yang and others coaching from the executive suite.

Lenovo did offer Smith a reward in Tuesday’s “reorg.” He was promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president.

[LENOVO ARCHIVE: Check out eight years of Lenovo stories as reported in WRALTechWire.]