HP CEO Enrique Lores On Chief Commercial Officer Hunt
The HP team focused on finding an executive with the right combination of experience and enthusiasm, HP CEO Enrique Lores tells CRN, and found one in Dave McQuarrie—who says he has grown up ‘around the HP way.’
HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores was in no rush to fill the chief commercial officer slot vacated by Christoph Schell earlier this year.
During his tenure, Schell helped shape the company’s Amplify channel partner program. But Lores was confident that he would have time to find the right person to fill Schell’s big shoes with the help of 31-year HP veteran Luciana Broggi, who stepped in to fill the chief commercial officer role until a replacement could be found. Broggi, however, will be retiring and will hand over the chief commercial officer reins in 2023.
Lores said the search for HP’s next chief commercial officer had to be methodical so the team focused on finding an executive with the right mix of experience and enthusiasm. After a monthslong search, the team landed on Dave McQuarrie, HP’s senior vice president for personal systems.
“This is one of the most important jobs in the company,” Lores told CRN. However, “we design our business around the channel. So, even if the person that drives the business is important, the strategy has not changed and is not going to change.”
HP signaled its commitment to growing channel business during its Amplify Executive Forum in August, where Kobi Elbaz, HP’s senior vice president and general manager of its global channel operation, detailed the company’s efforts to expand and improve the Amplify program. He noted that over the previous four quarters, $6 billion in growth flowed directly through the channel partner program.
Lores said that growth will continue.
“My message is we have been a channel company, we will continue to be a channel company and we have rebuilt our portfolio to be more growth-oriented—and it’s always growing with the channel. That’s the key message that all the partners should take from us—that no matter who are the leaders at HP, the strategy continues to be to grow and to do business through the channel and to really delight our common customers by working closely with our partners.”
When Broggi stepped up to fill the chief customer officer gap, partners said they were glad to have a steady and experienced hand steering the channel program.
Harry Zarek, founder of Ontario, Canada-based Compugen, was impressed by Broggi’s handling of the position. “I was a booster of Luciana and she was a key leader,” he said.
Broggi told CRN that McQuarrie was the right choice.
“The channel has been the backbone of everything we’ve done, and I’ve spent most of my career in the company working with channel partners. I strongly believe that the channel is one of the key pillars and reason for HP’s success over many, many years. I’m very happy about leaving the company in the hands of the organization and Dave—they are all people that have a strong background in the channel and strong knowledge about the business.”
When McQuarrie joined HP in 2017, it was sort of a homecoming for him. While his career led him through different companies including Lenovo and Dell, his father had worked at HP as a field engineer in Australia. “So I grew up around the HP way,” he said. “I was one of the kids in the ‘bring your kid to work day” back in the ‘80s. … So I have a very strong connection to this company.”