Lenovo appoints new Middle East Regional Manager, Transactional Business

Khaled Kamel, recently appointed general manager, Lenovo Middle East, confirmed that Ahmed Khalil, who has extensive experience in IT sales and management, will enhance the channel and drive sales through his transactional management role fulfilling Lenovo Middle East's vision for further growth and success in the region. Lenovo's 100% channel oriented transactional business model is designed to serve the small to medium business (SMB) and consumer market segments, supplying these end users through a trained and experienced channel.

'Lenovo has an indirect sales model which means our channel strategy is of the utmost importance in getting the right product at the right price and at the right time to our end users. We are delighted to welcome Ahmed aboard to build on and drive this strategy forward.' stated Khaled Kamel.

'Lenovo continues to enhance its partner commitment through innovative programs, unique product portfolios and a highly profitable transactional business model. Ahmed's role will be to build on this commitment, and expand the channel across the region with a view to even further growth and expansion across the Middle East. A huge focus area will be a massive recruitment drive for the upcoming consumer products launch, which is set to take Lenovo's Middle East business to a whole new level.'

Ahmed Khalil joins Lenovo with 12 years of IT industry expertise having begun his career at the ground level as a network engineer in 1996 before quickly moving up into sales, marketing and then general management at International IT firms across the region. Now at Lenovo, Ahmed will lead the already strong transactional team to fulfill the growth and expansion plans for the Middle East region. He will play an instrumental role in enhancing the SMB business model and profitability for the channel partners as well as orchestrating the launch of the consumer products in the Middle East region.

'The region's PC channel is a challenging opportunity for any vendor and the SMB and consumer markets are experiencing considerable growth now and for the foreseeable future. I am looking to capitilise on our already strong share of these emerging markets bringing new and innovative channel schemes that provide an efficient and competitive route to market,' said Ahmed Khalil when asked about his new appointment. 'By building on existing relationships between Lenovo and its partners and focusing on fostering new ones we will drive Lenovo's growth and enhance our reach to customers.'

Lenovo MEEP is headquartered in Dubai Internet City, covering the GCC countries, Levant, Egypt and Pakistan. The vendor has a channel network of 35 partners around the region. In January 2008, the Lenovo Group reported strong financial results for its third fiscal quarter of 2007/08, which ended December 31, 2007. Global sales for the quarter jumped 15% year on year, to $4.6bn, driven by double-digit growth in Lenovo PC unit shipments and sales across all of the Company's operating geographies. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA), shipments jumped a robust 24% in the third fiscal quarter. For the same period, EMEA sales totaled $1.1bn or some 24% of total sales.