Lenovo Data Center Group names new EMEA president

Giovanni Di Filippo has joined the team at Lenovo Data Center Group (DCG).

He has ben appointed the role of president, Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and is tasked with driving the business in this region and build on relationships with data center partners and customers.

 Di Filippo brings a wealth of experience to Lenovo DCG. Through various senior leadership roles, he has transformed sales organisations within international, multi-billion-dollar technology companies. Before Lenovo, he was Vice President of Europe Middle East and Africa for Channels, Sales - Strategic Alliances with Riverbed Technology, where his channel-first oriented strategy led in 2018 to become the Geography of the Year.

Prior to this time, he held several global vice president-level positions within SAP's global channel and sales divisions. Following a period as the managing director of Central - Eastern Europe and the Gulf region for Cisco, he also went onto expand this role to lead the entire CEE, CIS and Middle East region as well, covering 42 countries in total with a $3bn business. Before this, Di Filippo gained leadership experience with Sun Microsystems and Compaq Computers driving sales in international environments.

In more recent times, Di Filippo has worked with several European startups – providing consultancy to ensure sustained growth and helping to set up their international sales organisations - which gave him invaluable insight into business agility and innovation.

"Giovanni is a staunch advocate of smarter sales models based on the entire partner eco-system and even invented his own innovative next generation business architecture known as the rapid operational sales model as well as the partner quadrant model," the company says.

"He is also passionate about developing people and creating a world-class team focused on delighting our valued network of partners and customers."

Di Filippo adds, "For me, technology has the potential to do so much for the digital society if we think more about the people at the centre of it all, and encourage greater collaboration- how technology should work smarter for everyone, how it can truly enable us to make everyday life easier, even how it can help solve some of humanity's greatest challenges.

Di Filippo lives in Zurich, Switzerland. He has Bachelor and Master's degrees in various subjects, such as banking, business administration, sales and marketing, and several business diplomas from around the world.