Palo Alto, Calif.-based hardware and services vendor Hewlett-Packard Co. announced Thursday that Peter Galanis will be taking the reins of subsidiary Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co. Galanis takes over as president and CEO from Paul Tsaparis, who becomes vice-president of technology support for HP’s Americas region enterprise business.
Chicago-based Galanis was director of global accounts for HP’s manufacturing and distribution industry business in the U.S. central region, according to the company. He joined HP in 2006, having held positions with EMC Corp., Xerox Corp. amd Sun Microsystems Inc. Galanis has 18 years of industry experience, according to the company.
HP Canada wouldn’t make Galanis or Tsaparis available for an interview.
Tsaparis took the helm of HP Canada in 1998, having worked his way up through the Canadian organization after joining in 1984.
“It’s a pretty long run as a CEO,” said Sebastien Ruest, vice-president of IDC Canada Ltd.’s infrstructure, software and services group.
That’s likely not going to be the case for Galanis, Ruest believes. A Canadian appointed to the post would likely be looking at a long-term career move. But large corporations will often give regional roles as a “tour of duty” in Canada, Ruest said, which means a different style of management. Tour-of-duty CEOs are more aggressive about hitting specific targets, and in Galanis’s case, those are likely to be on the services side, he said.
“HP is butting at IBM’s door,” from a services revenue perspective, Ruest said. “It’s becoming a neck-and-neck race.”
Since HP’s August 2008 acquisition of EDS Corp., the proportion of HP’s revenue derived from services has risen to about 30 per cent, said Ruest. But in Canada, while HP has significant contracts with financial institutions, and an applications management practice inherited from EDS, Ruest said the services side in Canada hasn’t been a serious focus. Competitors are “chipping away” at the EDS customer base as they wait for a road map, Ruest said.
Tsaparis, meanwhile, will be responsible for the growth of HP’s technology support offerings in the Americas, reporting to Joe Bottazzi, vice-president and general manager of technology services in the Americas.
HP Canada was established in Montreal in 1961, and moved to its current Mississauga, Ont., headquarters in 1974. There are 28 HP locations across Canada, with 5,600 employees and contractors.
