The outgoing president of HP Canada, Paul Tsaparis has spent more than a quarter-century at working at HP Canada’s (Nasdaq: HPQ) office in Mississauga, Ont. And, although he has a new North American role as vice-president of technology support for HP Enterprise Business in the Americas region, Tsaparis is staying put in Toronto.
Tsaparis, in an exclusive interview with CDN, called his 11 and half years running HP Canada an “absolute privilege.”
Tsaparis time at the top coincided with the biggest period of growth and transformation in the IT industry. “It’s been an incredible gift that I have had. For all of our customers, partners, and employees and in government associations I want to tell them that I loved every single part of my assignment during this time,” he said.
The York University graduate has been part of many major decisions as HP president from the sell of its testing and measurement business, to acquiring Compaq, building the first technical services practice through a joint venture with CIBC, acquiring EDS along with 30 other companies.
Through it all Tsaparis held firm to his belief that HP be a 100 per cent channel driven company even during a time when it was politically not the thing to do.
“First of all the channel is incredible resource to ICT market to service customer needs. There isn’t another IT company that puts more product and services through the channel than HP. The channel is treasured here and looked upon as an asset. It has enabled us to service client’s needs. It was always clear to me in Canada that given the quality of the solution provider community that it would always be the most successful route to market,” Tsaparis said.
In his new role, Tsaparis will focus on technical services business in the entire Americas region and what he likes about it is that it’s another way he can help grow channel partner business.
As dream jobs come, he said, this new position is equal to his role as HP Canada president. He said it all about the energy that you put into position. “I love learning new things and I love getting a new set of experiences,” he added.
His replacement Peter Galanis a strong executive that led HP’s MDI vertical in the U.S., Tsaparis said.
Tsaparis believes that Galanis’s 18 years of experience dealing with channel partners will be an asset in his new role. Galinas is considered top talent in HP and Tsaparis was delighted that the subsidiary was able to attract him. “He will be a terrific leader for us,” he said.Galanis will start needing to fill the huge hole left by the departure of Cisco Systems as an authorized partner. If Tsaparis had his way, he told CDN, he would have kept the HP/Cisco relationship going, but that it wasn’t his choice to make. He said that keeping the partnership alive would have provided more choice to clients.
“I am a believer that markets and customers want choice. I also believe that the end user customer that buys from us wants choice. The channel wants choice in assembling technology that works best in the market place. When the customer has the ability to choose, given that context, and HP’s capabilities to put together technology from multiple vendors through service it’s a great value. HP wants that role and has the ability to respond well to customer needs. When a partner ends the relationship it impacts the customer’s choice and from that standpoint I am disappointed,” he said.
CDN will have more of Paul Tsaparis’s Exit Interview in a future edition of CDN and CDN online.
