Well the search for a new leader for Intel Canada did not take long at all. And, the man hired to replace Graham Palmer wasn’t too far either.
The chip making giant has promoted Denis Gaudreault to the role of Country Manager. Gaudreault was based in Montreal and has been working for Intel Canada for 16 years.
He was recently the worldwide director of government and education vertical team. In this role, Gaudreault was responsible for managing the Canadian government and large enterprise businesses in the country.
Prior to that, Gaudreault lead the US Federal business.
The Montreal University graduate is planning on relocating to Toronto for this new opportunity.
As previously reported Intel Canada country manager Graham Palmer is leaving the Canadian market after three-and-half years on the job.
CDN learned from sources that Palmer is heading back to the U.K. and will stay with Intel in another role.
He was the country manager of Intel in the U.K. and Ireland before he took on the same role in Canada.
A search has started for Palmer’s replacement and a source close to the situation said that they will be looking for outside candidates. Intel tends to promote from within.
Palmer’s tenure at Intel Canada will be a very memorable one. He made himself very visible through the channel ecosystem and the entire IT industry in Canada.
At Intel Canada he led the charge in driving a new strategic direction for the chip making giant. Palmer focus energies on two-in-ones, tablets and data centres along with Intel’s traditional strengths in desktops and servers. He also pushed the Canadian operation towards the trillion-dollar opportunity in the Internet of Things.
But maybe his biggest impact was on re-engaging the channel back on the PC refresh at a time when solution providers moved on mass to the cloud.
He told CDN, in a previous interview, there is a great opportunity to drive another hardware refresh that goes beyond Windows XP.
Palmer educated channel partners saying 32 per cent of the current install base around the world is four years or older. Collectively this group of servers consume approximately 65 per cent energy. “With a refresh these customers can see huge energy saves and massive performance improvements,” he said.
He also did not give up on the desktop space despite declining returns. Palmer said there a lot of innovation happening in the desktop area. “The desktop PC is not dying. There are four areas of growth within desktops and all based on new types of form factors such as the MiniDT, All-in-Ones, portable All-in-Ones and the gaming enthusiast segment.”
During his time in the Canadian market, Palmer was recognized three times from CDN as Top 25 Newsmaker for the year.