HP: Two Big Hires For Mobile Tablet, Enterprise Efforts

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Nash joins HP as VP, product management, consumer PCs. He arrives as HP strives to simplify and innovate in the consumer markets. He previously was VP of Kindle at Amazon (2010-2013), and earlier he helped Microsoft to build the Windows NT Server and BackOffice businesses. Poke around and you may discover that Nash used to speak with The VAR Guy regularly in the 1990s, when our resident blogger allegedly worked for InformationWeek.

Stack, meanwhile, is an HP Enterprise Services and EDS veteran who spent nearly three years at Accenture. Stack returns to HP as senior vice president of Global Sales for Enterprise Services, the division that’s primarily made up of the former EDS. He will report to Mike Nefkens, executive vice president of that business unit, according to AllThingsD.

So why are Nash and Stack joining HP when key business and channel leaders — most recently, Cloud Czar Biri Singh — have been exiting? Perhaps some answers will emerge at HP Global Partner Conference 2013, which ranks among the Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences that The VAR Guy tracks. CEO Meg Whitman and other HP leaders will attempt to rally channel partners at the multi-day conference.

Longer-term View

HP remains focused on a multi-year turnaround effort. The company continues to spar with former Autonomy executives, while also struggling to strengthen its PC, printer and enterprise services businesses. That’s where Nash and Stack enter the picture.

While at Amazon, Nash helped the online retailer to build Kindle into one of the world’s best-known mobile brands. And if HP needs to tap Nash for enterprise synergies, he had plenty of experience building the Windows NT and server applications businesses at Microsoft.

Meanwhile, Stack rejoins HP after the technology giant in 2012 wrote down the EDS acquisition, essentially conceding that the IT services buyout has not fulfilled HP’s expectations.

No doubt, Nash and Stack face uphill challenges. Nash will wind up competing with his old employers on some fronts — potentially marketing consumer mobile devices against Amazon Kindle and Microsoft Surface. And Stack rejoins HP at a time when the overall IT services and outsourcing market isn’t all that hot. Just asked IBM, which is struggling to restore growth in its own Global Services business.