Greg Milkovich, executive director of sales and marketing at Samsung Canada, resigned Feb. 28. Meanwhile, Jimmy Davlouros, BenQ Canada’s general manager has been promoted to chief operating officer of BenQ North America.
Milkovich became the de facto GM of Samsung Canada in January 2004 and set the subsidiary on track to be a major player in the printing market.
In an interview, Milkovich said his departure from Samsung was amicable but there was a difference in management philosophy.
“My view on what Samsung brings to the table is very positive, and it has a tremendous amount of assets from a technology and brand standpoint. But at the end of the day there was a difference of opinion,” Milkovich said.
“Clearly the fact that the direction I wanted for the company and where I felt we should go next did not jive with what the company wanted.”
Samsung’s drive in the printer market was not a factor in his decision to resign, he said.
Milkovich added that he will look back very favourably on his experience at Samsung.
There has been no official reason given by Samsung for Milkovich’s departure.
Jim Mandala, national sales manager, information technology division for Samsung Canada, called the resignation “unfortunate.”
“Personally I am very sorry to see him go. He did an excellent job for Samsung and he was well liked by the customers and the staff,” Mandala said.
As for Davlouros, this will be his second try at a senior U.S. post in a little under a year. He had been vice-president of sales and marketing for the U.S. region for BenQ, only to be demoted back to the Canadian office.
As GM of BenQ Canada, Davlouros seemingly overnight built the brand into a major force in the marketplace.
His promotion coincides with the shift of Ralph Tang from CEO of the American business unit to head of BenQ’s worldwide marketing.
Replacing him will be Ben Chu.
Nava Akkineni will take over from Davlouros in Canada next week. His title will be office manager, not general manager. Davlouros said Akkinei will be more of a liason between himself and the Canadian team.
BenQ Canada’s Mike Booker will now be in charge of the IT division of the subsidiary.
“We are going to rock and roll. There’s no doubt about it,” Davlouros said.
