HP Picks Dave McQuarrie As New Chief Commercial Officer: Exclusive

The Palo Alto, Calif. IT giant has chosen a permanent replacement for one of its most important’ executive leadership positions. ‘This has been and will always be a channel company and we design our businesses around the channel,’ says CEO Enrique Lores.

HP Inc. on Thursday named Dave McQuarrie as the company’s permanent chief commercial officer. He will succeed acting CCO Luciana Broggi, who is retiring after stepping in for Christoph Schell earlier this year – who left the position for a role at Intel.

McQuarrie, who joined HP in 2017 and most recently served as general manager of personal systems, will join the executive leadership team and report directly to CEO Enrique Lores. Lores told CRN finding the right person for the CCO position was crucial for the company’s continued channel strategy.

“During these last several months, we have been going through the process to identify the perfect candidate,” Lores said in an exclusive interview with CRN. “This is a really big announcement for us as the (CCO) is responsible for the whole sales organization of the company in all countries… all of the channel activities and sale activities reports to this position. We are really excited about having Dave take the role.”

McQuarrie outlined his immediate goals, telling CRN, “I think the first priority is to make sure that we are clear with our partners that we are back with a vengeance – even as the majority of the industry continues to have pockets of either too much supply or not enough. The recession risk and economic situation continues to threaten, but behind those headlines are many opportunities and when we look at the relationship we have with the channel, we want the message to be, ‘We are here with you.’ Expect us to be there next year as we go out and help you grow profitability and help you win and grow in the market.”

For Lores, channel operations are vital to the continued success of HP. While the consumer segment of PC sales are slowing overall, the commercial side has so far remained steady and channel partners are on the front lines of enterprise business.

“This is one of the most important jobs in the company because the (COO) really drives the whole sales team and the channel team,” Lores said, noting that he used to run the channel operations for the company. “The channel is the reason I moved to the U.S. So, the channel is very important for me personally and also from a business perspective. This has been and will always be a channel company and we design our businesses around the channel.”

For an HP partner like Mike Turicchi, vice president at Gainesville, Va.-based NCS Technologies, the CCO role provides stability and a solid foundation for channel partners. “He’s the right guy for the job,” Turicchi said of McQuarrie. “With his background, he has a lot of experience with the channel and it’s important to have someone with that kind of experience. Because the channel ecosystem is a big part of the overall plan for Hp to be successful and for partners like us to execute and deliver. I’m glad they took the time to find the right person.”

McQuarrie is no stranger to the tech industry. Prior to HP, he spent close to a decade at Lenovo where he held business leadership positions across Europe. He also served in sales, marketing and product leadership roles for Dell across Europe and Asia. Orginally from Australia, McQuarrie has lived and worked in six countries during his career.

Broggi will finish out her 31-year HP career and hand over the reins for the CCO position in the new year. She said McQuarrie is well-suited for the position, but the role requires a team approach.

“This not a job you can do alone,” Broggi told CRN. “The strength and power of this organization is that we have a very strong team… In my 30-plus years at HP, there are moments where we 100 percent agreed with channel partners and moments where we agree to disagree. And the moments where we disagreed, I think it is super important to be extremely clear and honest in our strategy, in our priorities, and in our objectives.”

HP Global Channel Chief Kobi Elbaz will report to McQuarrie.