So what do Lenovo executive changes mean to Triangle? To company?

So how do all the changes at Lenovo affect its operations in the Triangle?

The naming of a president at Lenovo and an accompanying reorganization of several executive roles won’t have an impact on the company’s work force in the Triangle. But the head of North American operations, who is getting a new jobs, says the changes will change how the ever-changing tech giant operates. 

Lenovo disclosed the changes Thursday morning, the biggest of which is the name of former Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci as Lenovo’s president. While keeping his chief operating role, Lanci now has direct oversight of Lenovo’s PC and server businesses. He reports directly to chair and CEO Yang Yuanqing, who will continue to directly oversee cloud, services and mobile efforts.

The role of Gerry Smith, who led all Americas group and the server focused business, becomes Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Personal Computer and Enterprise Business Group (servers).

Jay Parker moves from head of North America operations to Senior Vice President, Enterprise Business Group.

“Really, this is shifting of some chairs,” Parker told WRAL TechWire when asked about any local impact on employees.

A significant impact will be on Yang, according to Parker.

“This frees up some bandwidth for him to think about the future,” Parker explained. The role Lanci, who is based in Milan, Italy and will remain there, will fill is designed to take more of the day-to-day workload off Yang. Yang has directed a huge shift in Lenovo’s focus over the past three years, expanding into smartphones and servers.

“The role Gianfranco is one that had not existed for at least several years. This frees up time for Yang Yuanqing to spend time on what the next phase of Lenovo will be while Gianfranco concentrates on the Lenovo of today, as it were.”

Parker also made it a point to stress that the Lanci promotion and the fact Lanci will remain based in Milan did not indicate any trend within Lenovo to shift resources to Europe.

Parker also said the changes were “not at all” a demotion of Smith, who had previously reported directly to Yang. Smith remains a member of the advisory committee Yang has assembled to help him run the company, Parker said. He also explained that in his view that Smith has “bigger responsibilities than he did before. If anything, it’s a promotion.”

The changes certainly are a step up for Parker as well.

“This is a big change for me,” he said excitedly. His title becomes Senior Vice President, Enterprise Business Group, and he reports directly to Smith.

Parker, a North Carolina native, moves from one geographic group role focused largely on sales and marketing to having a global role and also will have direct responsibility for product development in servers and storage. “It’s a promotion, it’s a different role, and I’m excited about it,” he said.

He’s had experience in product development and strategy before, so the new role is “a little bit back to the future.”

Lenovo is making the changes after having absorbed IBM’s x86 server business and Motorola Mobility from Google.

The roles of several other executives also were changed.

For details, read WTW’s earlier story.