RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – November 21, 2012: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY), a global leader in PCs and mobile Internet devices, today announced the appointment of Gerry Smith as the Company’s president of North America region. In this role, Smith will oversee daily operations for North America, where Lenovo has been the fastest growing major PC company for the past 9 quarters. With focus on sustained profitable growth in the region, Smith will also continue to strengthen a market leading commercial business, drive substantial growth in the consumer and retail space and build a stronger brand in the United States and Canada.
In his prior assignment as the senior vice president of Global Operations at Lenovo, Smith ran the company’s end-to-end supply chain, procurement, supply/demand planning, quality management and customer support functions, as well as the corporate Lean Six Sigma program. He is a PC-industry veteran with extensive knowledge of manufacturing, procurement, logistics, supply and demand planning, as well as services. Since joining Lenovo in 2006, he led a dramatic transformation of the company’s supply chain operations, significantly reducing costs, while improving delivery performance and maintaining the company’s industry-leadership in product quality.
As the president of North America, he will report directly to Lenovo’s CEO and Chairman, Yuanqing Yang. This role is one of four existing geographic president roles for the company (also including Europe/Middle East/Africa, Asia Pacific/Latin America and China).
“Gerry is one of our strongest and most proven leaders, who has helped Lenovo establish the best supply chain in our industry,” said Yang. “Lenovo is outgrowing the market and our competitors in North America, and we are rising in the ranks here just as we are globally. I am confident this momentum will continue under Gerry’s leadership. Gerry will bring the same level of precision, discipline, focus and long term thinking to North America role, as he has done in leading the worldwide operations across the company.”
Smith said, “Continued success in North America will be critical to sustaining Lenovo’s global PC leadership, and I look forward to building on the great work of our team in the region. Even as the market slowed last quarter, Lenovo delivered the fastest growth and biggest share gains in the industry. We already have a thriving commercial business with our legendary Think products and just unveiled a new wave of convertibles that have established us as a major player in consumer. We have a deep, talented team here, and we are in a great position to continue our record-setting growth in North America. I am confident we will continue to build on our momentum in North America.”
Earlier in his career, Smith managed sales and marketing organizations, as well as business units ranging from displays, peripherals development to notebook divisions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Marketing from Pacific Lutheran University.
About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY), the world’s second-largest PC vendor, is a $US30 billion personal technology company serving customers in more than 160 countries. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile Internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile Internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information see www.lenovo.com.
