HPE Snatches Away HP Channel Veteran To Oversee Worldwide Distribution

‘Simon [Ewington] brings deep channel experience and a partner-first approach to this new role,’ says HPE Worldwide Channel Chief George Hope. ‘He is a results-oriented leader with a proven expertise in change management across volume and value categories. He’s consistently demonstrated his ability to drive high-performing teams—both direct and virtual —across international borders and successfully nurture key customer relationships.’

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has hired away the head of PC and printer behemoth HP Inc.’s graphics solutions business for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Simon Ewington (pictured), as its new vice president of worldwide distribution.

Ewington, who has been overseeing HP’s $1.2 billion graphics solutions business as general manager of Graphics Solutions Business EMEA, returns to HPE where he was vice president of channel sales EMEA from August 2014 to November 2017.

[Releated: 5 Ways HPE Is Helping Partners Drive GreenLake Sales: George Hope]

Ewington—who has spent nearly 30 years at HP and HPE including 20 years at HP Inc. before the company split in two— replaces George Hope, who was named worldwide channel chief for HPE in October.

In a blog post announcing the appointment, Hope said he will work closely with Ewington—who is based in Geneva, Switzerland —to empower distributors to further monetize and embrace as-a-service selling strategies.

Hope said Ewington’s “prior experience at HPE enabling the channel transformation from a transactional to an outcome-focused business and his track record of driving consistent growth make him a natural leader for our worldwide distribution business.”

“Simon brings deep channel experience and a partner-first approach to this new role,” said Hope. “He is a results-oriented leader with a proven expertise in change management across volume and value categories. He’s consistently demonstrated his ability to drive high-performing teams—both direct and virtual—across international borders and successfully nurture key customer relationships.”

A top executive for a solution provider, who did not want to be identified, said the appointment of the distribution-savvy executive is key to helping speed up the sales proposal and price quote process for multiyear GreenLake deals through distribution.

“We do the quote and then it goes to distribution and then back to us,” said the sales executive. “It’s stressful. We need a faster process. Time kills all deals.”

HPE in June unveiled 17 new building block GreenLake offerings for small, medium and large businesses aimed at reducing the complete sales cycle for GreenLake from what previously took as long as six months to just 14 days or less from price quote to delivery.

As part of the stepped-up GreenLake sales offensive, HPE has tripled its GreenLake channel investment and for the first time has added a GreenLake sales quota for HPE sales reps.

Hope has called GreenLake the “biggest opportunity” for partners in the current fiscal year. “It’s margin-rich [a 17 percent up-front rebate], and it’s sticky. If you get GreenLake into an account and then you start showing the value to the customer in that account. you are immovable,” said Hope. “From that point forward, you are their strategic vendor. It’s just a matter of time before they move more workloads onto GreenLake.”