North America Storage Chief Andrew Manners Is Leaving HPE

‘Andrew Manners was loved by the channel,’ says the CEO for a top HPE partner, who did not want to be identified. ‘Losing guys like that doesn’t help. Andrew would fight for the channel and do the right thing. He was a difference-maker for us.’

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Vice President and General Manager of North America Storage Andrew Manners, a highly respected 20-year HPE veteran who has driven a host of investments aimed at driving profitable channel growth, is leaving HPE, sources said.

Manners, who started his HPE career as director of storage sales in Australia, has overseen the North America storage sales effort for the last five years including a dedicated channel sales team that worked hand in hand with partners to drive storage growth.

Among Manner’s biggest accomplishments were leading the rapid rise in 3Par channel sales and tightly integrating the popular Nimble all flash storage portfolio within HPE with a 100 percent partner go to market model.

Manners’ departure comes nearly two years after HPE established a dedicated North America storage unit charged with driving double-digit sales growth in an intensely competitive storage market.

News of Manner’s departure comes with HPE laying off hundreds of employees this week in North America as its steps up its “partner-first” go-to-market model for the start of its new fiscal year Nov. 1, sources told CRN.

“Andrew Manners was loved by the channel,” said the CEO for a top HPE partner, who did not want to be identified. “Losing guys like that doesn’t help. Andrew would fight for the channel and do the right thing. He was a difference-maker for us.”

Several top solution provider executives told CRN they are sorry to see Manners leave the company. They said they are already feeling the impact of North America layoffs, trying to figure out who to team with on complex storage deals.

“My team is frustrated right now,” said the CEO for a top HPE partner, who did not want to be identified. “There is a lot of change and confusion right now in terms of who we have to go to inside HPE for storage sales help. I understand companies have to do what they have to do to be successful, but we need more communication on how this is going to affect us.”

Another solution provider sales executive, who did not want to be identified, said HPE’s layoffs included a number of employees in the North America storage business.

“A lot of the HPE storage resources we used to lean on are getting cut,” said the executive. “It’s going to be challenging going forward.”