Two Key Channel Leaders Out at HPE: Interim Replacement Named

Two key channel leaders at HPE are departing as the company brings its GreenLake partner ecoystem and worldwide channels organization under the same leadership.

George Hope, senior vice president of worldwide channels and ecosystem, is leaving the company. In addition, Maurice Martin, vice president of the HPE GreenLake partner ecosystem, is also departing. Their time at HPE will end on Jan. 31.

HPE’s George Hope

An HPE spokesperson confirmed the news to Channel Futures.

HPE’s Maurice Martin

Following their departure, HPE vice president of worldwide distribution Simon Ewington will take up an interim leadership role. His newly minted position combines worldwide channel and ecosystem and the GreenLake partner ecosystem.

“This change is effective on February 1, until we identify a permanent leader,” the spokesperson told Channel Futures.

Ewington will report to Gilles Thibaut, who serves as senior vice president of global sales partner ecosystem, business development and customer success & lifetime value. Ewington led EMEA channel sales from 2014 to 2017 at HPE. He has served as global distribution leader for two years.

HPE’s Simon Ewington

Hope had been serving as global partner sales lead for two and a half years. Other roles in his nearly six-year tenure at HPE include leading its worldwide distribution and SMB divisions. He worked in channels for 17 years at EMC before moving to SimpliVity. He also worked for Future Electronics in the 1990s.

Maurice Martin joined HPE in 2020 after a 16-year run at Microsoft, where he led the Azure Business Group’s overall field strategy.

Channel Updates

HPE last month previewed its soon-to-be-launched Partner Ready Vantage program. The special segment assigns a single contract and identity companies that engage with HPE through multiple routes to market. However, the vendor isn’t pushing partners to join the group.

“One of the key strategies for us is ‘evolve at your own pace.’ You decide what you want,” Hope told Channel Futures at the time. “If you want to be in Partner Ready Vantage, great. If you want to be in Partner Ready, but not progress into the Vantage portion then great, fine – whatever your customer’s journey dictates.”

Hope in the same conversation stressed that HPE isn’t planning to “leave behind” partners who aren’t ready to adopt the as-a-service GreenLake model.

“We’re still 90% product. We’re at 10% as-a-service and over the next couple of years, maybe 20%. But we’re still very, very strong product and we know we want to give them the right experience on the products,” Hope said.