Lenovo Australia product director David Heyworth has jumped ship to VMware, taking on a role as product marketing director for APAC.
Heyworth stepped down from a two-year career at Lenovo just before Christmas.
Heyworth's replacement is Lenovo stalwart Matt Codrington, who has relocated from Japan and a role as general manager of partner sales and executive director of product strategy, to become a local executive director and the general manager for SMB and partner sales.
Codrington is charged with looking after the local Lenovo channel, as well as marketing and products across A/NZ. Codrington is well versed in channel strategy having spent four years running the larger Japan channel team.
Codrington said he was thrilled at the opportunity to return home to Australia.
Part of Codrington’s remit will be launching Lenovo’s consumer Idea line in Australia. His predecessor Heyworth told CRN last year it was a matter of when, not if the line would launch locally.
Codrington confirmed a local arrival was in Lenovo’s future strategy but said the company wanted to do it at the right time and in the right way.
“The products have to come to Australia for Lenovo to build our business, but we’re going to do it the right way,” Codrington said.
Heyworth’s VMware position is newly created as a result of an internal restructure. A VMware spokesperson said the company broke up product marketing and went to market with the new role late last year.
Heyworth did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
It was the second high-profile local departure for Lenovo that year, following former product and sales director Chris Kelly’s farewell in June 2012 to join a technology start-up in Singapore. Heyworth took on some of Kelly’s responsibilities following his departure.
Updated: 9:30 25/1/13 to include Codrington's comments
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