Lenovo, the second largest PC company in the world, today announced the appointment of Gianfranco Lanci as senior vice president (SVP) and president of Lenovo EMEA. Lanci, formerly CEO and president of Acer, will help lead the continued rapid growth of Lenovo's business across the region. Lenovo has been the fastest growing major PC company in the world for more than two years and last year acquired MEDION in Germany to help fuel continued growth in Europe. As part of today's announcement, Lanci is outlining plans to drive Lenovo to becoming a top three PC company in EMEA by 2013. “The last year has seen turmoil and uncertainty in the PC market for a number of players, but our strategy has remained consistent throughout – to protect and grow our heritage THINK business, while attacking new markets such as the consumer space," said Lanci, whose tenure as EMEA president officially began on April 2nd. “We are already strong in Russia and Germany in the consumer sector and our strategy for this year is to roll out IDEA consumer products to many more countries across EMEA."
Lenovo chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang added: “For Lenovo, we recognise we are entering a new era – the PC-plus age – in which the PC remains central to the digital lives of millions of people and business and at the heart of an ecosystem of tablets, smart phones and smart TVs. In this new era we must not only continue to win in commercial spaces, but also expand our global consumer presence in PCs and other personal technology devices. Gianfranco Lanci brings great experience, leadership and expertise to Lenovo in exactly these areas. I am certain he can help drive us forward to achieve these goals in EMEA and around the world."
Lanci noted that the rise of tablets and movement of new form factors in PC, like thin Ultrabooks into the mainstream, creates many new opportunities for Lenovo. “EMEA is a strategically critical market for us. We must maintain our commercial leadership – we are number one in the world in commercial – while dramatically expanding our consumer and SMB presence across the region. This will help us achieve 10% share in the top 10 countries in EMEA and realise our longer term objective of becoming a top three player in EMEA."
Gianfranco Lanci's appointment as president of Lenovo EMEA follows the company's reorganisation, effective 2nd April 2012, which creates four new geographies - EMEA, APLA (Asia Pacific / Latin America), China and North America. The reorganisation will create more efficient, fast-moving and focused geographies that can implement the company's ‘Protect & Attack' strategy more deeply and effectively around the world. This strategy has enabled Lenovo to “protect" its core businesses in China and the global commercial space to drive profits, while investing to “attack" growth in emerging markets, consumer devices and the mobile internet. As a result of this strategy, Lenovo has been the fastest growing personal computer maker for nine consecutive quarters, out growing the wider market for 11 straight quarters. The company, which already leads its PC competitors in emerging markets, recently announced its third quarter earnings, seeing record global market share (14%), record profits, gains in virtually every region and product segment, and an exciting new suite of products the meet the need of the PC-Plus generation.
EMEA is the largest of the four geographies and is divided into seven regions*. It is a diverse combination of mature, emerging and newly-emerged countries, offering great opportunities for growth in every market in ever segment – including consumer, small and medium businesses, large enterprises and public sector.
ENDS Background notes: * Region North Region Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania South Region France, Spain, Portugal, Italy UK & Ireland UK & Ireland DACH Germany, Austria & Switzerland Middle East & Africa (MEA) Four territories covering 71 countries - business focus countries listed below:
Gulf/UAE – UAE, Pakistan, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, RoME (rest of Middle East) Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Levant, Egypt & North Africa (LENA) – Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and DRC. Africa – Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Democratic Republic Congo, Mauritius RUCIS & EET Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey, Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, Serbia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia Western Europe consumer business The new division that will lead consumer business in Western Europe - created following the acquisition of MEDION by Lenovo in 2011
Gianfranco Lanci background: Gianfranco Lanci joined Lenovo in April 2012 as president of the company's EMEA geography and senior vice president of Lenovo Group. He is responsible for all business across Lenovo's largest geography – which includes 121 countries, 40 offices and 1,800 employees – and is part of Lenovo Group's leadership executive committee.
Lanci started his career in Texas Instruments (TI) in 1981 for the company's calculator and digital watch business. He served in several roles during his 17 year tenure, most notably as country manager for the Printers and Portable Computers Division in Italy and Middle East and Africa and then as president for TI's Productivity Products Division in EMEA.
Following Acer's acquisition of TI's notebook division in 1997, Lanci became managing director of Acer Italy, followed by president of Acer Europe in 2000 and president of EMEA in 2002. As president of Acer EMEA he introduced an innovative channel business model saw Acer become the #1 PC player in EMEA. In 2005 Lanci was appointed as president of Acer Inc and in 2008 he became CEO (chief executive officer) and president. Under his leadership Acer became the #2 PC company in the world – achieving record profitability for three consecutive years.
Gianfranco Lanci graduated from the Politecnico of Turin where he earned his degree in civil engineering. Lanci resides in Milan and is married with three children. His passions are books, cycling, football and wine appreciation. About Lenovo Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR:LNVGY) is a $US21 billion personal technology company – and the second largest PC company in the world, 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 centres in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, see www.lenovo.com.
