It didn’t take too long for Derek Smith to go back to his channel roots. The former managing director of Apple Canada is now the executive in residence at Communitech, a Kitchener, Ont.-based non-profit organization that helps high tech firms through the early stages of their development.
Smith will help these in areas such as business strategy and venture funding direction.
Smith was the managing director at Apple Canada for three years. He was initially introduced as the first ever president of Apple Canada, previous lead executives for the subsidiary has always used the title managing director. He was replaced late in 2011 by Wendy Hayes, who had ran Apple Canada for 10 years before Smith. Hayes came out of retirement to take on the role.
Smith was a long time senior executive at Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co., holding roles such as vice-president and general manager of the personal systems group and vice-president of channels for the tech giant. He got his start in IT with Compaq Canada.
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