There is a new leader taking over at Hewlett-Packard’s important printing and personal systems (PPS) unit: Dion Weisler. He used to work for Lenovo (News - Alert) and, more recently, has been with HP in Asia.
Weisler was the senior vice president for HP PPS in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), and earlier was vice president and chief operating officer of Lenovo’s Product and Mobile Internet Digital Home groups. Before that, he worked at Acer (News - Alert), where he was managing director of Acer UK.
“Dion is one of our very best executives, and his background is perfect given the challenges we face in the marketplace,” HP CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement.
He is replacing Todd Bradley, who, now that he is no longer executive vice president of Printing and Personal Systems, will become executive vice president, Strategic Growth Initiatives, TMCnet reported.
Bradley’s new position was just created and will keep Bradley in close contact with Whitman, who took over as CEO in 2011. He will be focused on increasing business in China and expanding channel partnerships globally. He will also be on the lookout for possible early-stage companies which can become partners with HP.
“There’s nothing more important to HP than our channel partners and the future of our business in China,” Whitman added in the company statement. “I’ve asked Todd to use his expertise to focus on these areas. I’ve also asked him to study the landscape of small companies and startups that could partner with HP to spur growth.”
Bradley is apparently well-liked by Chinese officials, having received the Friendship Award from China in 2009, the highest award presented to foreigners for their contributions to China’s development. Bradley used to be CEO of Palm.
“Todd has left Dion a great legacy to build on. Today’s announcement is about putting our best qualified leaders into roles focused on restarting HP’s growth,” Whitman said. “HP is extremely fortunate to have a strong bench to draw on as we rebuild and restore the company.”
In analyzing the move, Forbes points out that Bradley “remains in HP’s executive council, but won’t control nearly as much revenue.”
The changes could be seen as an attempt by Whitman to get “better operating performance from the big PPS group,” Forbes adds.
Last month, there was 1 percent drop in printing revenue for the recent quarter at HP. There was also a more substantial 20-percent decline in personal systems revenue during the recent quarter. The numbers were seen by analysts as related to consumers opting more for tablets and smartphones – as opposed to PCs.
Revenue at HP dropped 10 percent during the three months ending in April, and profits dropped by about a third, news reports said. It was the seventh consecutive quarter when there was a drop in quarterly revenue – when comparing one quarter with the same period of time in the prior year, news reports add.