Things change and people change in this great industry of ours. Yesterday at HP Canada was just another example of change. Although this one has some major impact on the channel. Paul Tsaparis, the long-time face of the subsidiary will be leaving his role as president.
He is to be replaced by little known Peter Galanis. Tsaparis has received many honours in his career such as a member of the top 40 under 40 club, CDN Newsmaker of the Year, along with Channel Visionary and Builder of the past 20 years. I can tell you he has earned them all. Tsaparis is a fine person, top notch executive and leader.
I have interviewed Paul on many occasions and I also introduced him at a Comdex Canada Keynote address. I will surely miss him. But, more importantly I believe he will be missed by the channel community in Canada. He was a strong advocate for the channel. Tsaparis battled head office many times on direct selling, for example.
His departure will lead to questions about HP’s direction. CDN, along with many of my colleagues at IT World Canada, attempted to interview both Tsaparis and Galanis only to be told they would not made available for interviews.
I am sure that this would not sit well with Tsaparis who has always been transparent about his decisions.
HP Canada’s outside PR agency informed me that Galanis would not be made available for interviews because he was announced as the new president yesterday. Other sources around the industry have speculated to me that Tsaparis was looking to leave his role for a while now. If this move was planned, I don’t understand what they are hiding from.
Galanis is an unknown variable. His background is EMC, which is a traditional direct-selling organization. He has worked at HP in the U.S. central region for the past four years. Meanwhile Tsaparis will be vice-president of technology support for HP’s Americas region enterprise business. Maybe this role is better than the job he has had since 1998. It does not sound as sexy as President of HP Canada, but that’s why interviews are important. Tsaparis would have had an opportunity to explain the role and how exciting and challenging it is.
Galanis could have eased fears from the channel by fielding questions. Also HP Canada is very close to announcing a new channel chief. What if the new channel chief and the new president don't see eye-to-eye? Again, Galanis could have addressed this. Instead we are all left to speculate.
One quick hit before I go. Former NEC and Trend Micro Canada executive Pat Kewin will be named director of sales and marketing for Accutrust shortly.