Lenovo Hires New North America President From AMD

Vladimir Rozanovich, a 24-year veteran of AMD, will become Lenovo’s president of North America and senior vice president for the company’s new International Sales Organization.

Lenovo has hired veteran AMD executive Vladimir Rozanovich to become president of the company’s North America business, CRN has learned.

Lenovo confirmed the hire on Thursday, saying that Rozanovich (pictured) will also serve as senior vice president for the company’s new International Sales Organization. He starts at Lenovo in mid-June.

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The hire comes on the heels of the April 1 reorganization at Lenovo that saw Matthew Zielinski, formerly the president of Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group in North America, promoted to a global executive role. Zielinski is now president of the new International Sales Organization at Lenovo.

Along with the Intelligent Devices Group, which includes PCs and IoT, Lenovo now operates a rebranded Infrastructure Solutions Group (formerly known as the Data Center Group) and a new Solutions and Services Group focused on verticals and services.

Rozanovich will be responsible for sales of all products and business groups in North America, Lenovo said.

Rozanovich comes to Lenovo after a 24-year tenure at AMD, most recently serving as corporate vice president for mega data center and cloud sales at the chipmaker, Lenovo said.

“I think he looks like a great find for Lenovo,” said Michael Goldstein, president and CEO of LAN Infotech, a Lenovo partner in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “Twenty-four years at AMD—what a track record.”

Goldstein said he hopes to see the new president focus on “keeping up the high standards from past leaders” at Lenovo’s North America business, which is heavily channel-focused.

Prior to joining Lenovo in early 2018, Zielinski had also been a veteran of AMD, spending 12 years there in sales leadership positions. Rozanovich was a colleague of Zielinski at AMD, Lenovo said in its statement.

“Through his service at AMD, Rozanovich developed an extensive working relationship with Lenovo, giving him a deep understanding of the company’s presence in North America,” Lenovo said.

Prior to his role focused on data center at AMD, Rozanovich held positions that also included responsibilities involving AMD’s PC chip business, according to his LinkedIn profile. Those roles included corporate vice president for the Americas region and corporate vice president for the HP global account at AMD, according to the profile.

Other prior roles included responsibilities for OEM partner executive field relationships—across vendors such as Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer—to promote AMD processors to IT managers, his LinkedIn profile says. Rozanovich initially joined AMD in July of 1996, according to the profile, which is the same year he graduated from Boston University with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering.

Rozanovich and his family will be relocating to North Carolina, where Lenovo’s U.S. headquarters is located, from his current home in Cincinnati, Lenovo said.

One solution provider executive who asked to not be identified said the hire by Lenovo sounds like a “logical choice” as the company pursues its “One Lenovo” strategy, with greater synergy across the PC and data center businesses.

Additionally, “it makes me happy that they’re bringing another AMD guy in there,” the solution provider executive said, since AMD has become a greater force in the PC market and channel in recent years.

AMD declined to comment.

Larry Fulop, vice president of marketing and technology at Tempe, Ariz.-based MicroAge, a Lenovo Gold partner, told CRN that Lenovo hiring Rozanovich from AMD is “exciting.”

“AMD has made huge strides in the last few years. As an independent company they have taken big market share — especially with Lenovo [devices] and the adoption of the AMD products,” Fulop said. “With the strong partnership with AMD, Lenovo bringing someone on board from that partner makes a lot of sense. I’m excited how the chemistry will continue to grow between the two organizations.”

Editor’s Note: On May 24, Lenovo confirmed to CRN that it had provided an incorrect title for Rozanovich. His correct title at Lenovo is president of North America and s enior vice president of the International Sales Organization.