Acer Inc (宏碁), the world’s fourth-largest PC brand, yesterday announced a key management reshuffle in a move to further solidify its presence in Europe as part of an ongoing company restructuring exercise.
Acer EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) president Walter Deppeler will take on the new role of chief marketing officer to lead global marketing and branding, while his position would be taken up by Oliver Ahrens, previously president of Acer China.
After the departure of former chief executive Gianfranco Lanci in late March, Deppeler, a Swiss national, had taken over the EMEA presidency, according to an Acer statement.
Deppeler effectively lowered the region’s channel inventory and stabilized EMEA operations within that period, the statement said.
Ahrens, a German, was formerly country manager of Acer Germany and director of the EMEA peripherals business unit.
In April 2009, Ahrens was promoted to president of Acer China and helped integrate the PC business of its Chinese partner Founder Group (方正集團). Acer said he boosted the firm’s market share and its revenue in China almost three-fold during his tenure.
Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin (林顯郎) will head the firm’s China operations. An Acer veteran, Lin took the helm of its China operations from 1998 to 2005, and started to oversee Taiwanese operations in 2001.
The executives will begin the handover of their responsibilities immediately and are expected to take on their new roles by the end of the year, Acer said.
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