Derek C. Smith will become the first-ever president of Apple Canada, (Nasdaq: AAPL) according to sources close to the situation.
Smith was the vice-president and general manager of HP Canada‘s Personal Systems Group (PSG), based in Mississauga, Ont. The PSG group is the largest division at the subsidiary.
Smith, a long-time channel advocate, will be named president and is replacing Wendy Hayes, who announced her retirement after leading the subsidiary for more than a decade.
In her tenure at Apple, Hayes reached many milestones including being named the No. 2 Newsmaker of the year by CDN for the historic Apple/Intel deal. Hayes was the first female executive to reach No. 2 status since the inception of the CDN Newsmakers Series. The only other being Julie Parrish of NetApp.
Hayes was very well respected in the industry and had a hand in many high profile Canadian product announcements such as the iPod, MacBook Air (thinnest notebook on the market), iPhone 3G, Mac OS X Leopard, and the iMac.
She also opened up the first Apple store in the country. Today, there are seven stores in Canada, with the latest store having opened in Montreal last summer.
Hayes moved up to the position of managing director after a stint as vice-president of sales for Apple Canada.
Smith officially left HP Canada yesterday and it is still unclear as to when he will start his new position at Apple Canada.