At the Lenovo Innovation Summit, which was held in Cape Town at CTICC, Marc Godin – Vice President and General Manager of Lenovo, Middle East and Africa – met with IT News Africa’s Online Editor, Darryl Linington, in order to discuss how Lenovo is setting its sights on becoming a power player in Africa. Additionally, in the interview, Godin discusses the highlights of the Lenovo Innovation Summit as well as why the firm is placing such a big focus on Africa.
Marc Godin is Vice President and General Manager of Lenovo Middle East, Turkey and Africa. He is responsible for driving sales, relationships, Business Partners and Customers satisfaction within this region.
Since April 2012, Marc was Vice President and General Manager of the United Kingdom and Ireland region, where he and his team took the PC business from 11.9% market share two years ago to today’s 18.2% and a clear #2 position. Most notably Marc and his team led the charge in Lenovo’s consumer ambitions, presiding over a growth trajectory from a mere #5 in consumer PCs two years ago to today’s #2 position of 19.4% market share, more than doubling it in that time.
In 2009, Marc was appointed as Vice President Enterprise and Public Sector for Lenovo’s Western Europe organization. During this period, Marc and his team turned-around Lenovo’s E&PS Business from money losing to significant profitability, while growing it over 50%, well above Market growth.
Previously, Marc was Vice President and General Manager for Lenovo’s Worldwide Enterprise Business Unit, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, responsible for spearheading the move into the global server and workstation markets. Before this, Marc was Vice President Marketing for Lenovo’s Worldwide Notebook Business Unit, also based in Raleigh, responsible for development of product marketing strategies and product portfolios to attain worldwide revenue, profit, market share and customer satisfaction goals for the company’s ThinkPad and Lenovo-branded lines of notebook PCs.
Marc has also served as Vice President, Marketing and Channels, for Lenovo’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Group. He held the same position in IBM’s Personal Computing Division (PCD), prior to Lenovo’s acquisition of this business in May 2005. In 2002, he had rejoined PCD as leader of the unit’s EMEA West Region.
During his career, Marc spent 18 years with IBM, where he advanced through several progressively responsible Sales, Sales Management and Executive roles in the Distribution Sector, the Server and Storage organization and the Business Partners and Integrators organization.
Marc earned his degree in Business Administration from Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Rouen, known today as NEOMA Business School, in France. He is married and has 3 children.
Watch the video below to find out more:
By: Darryl Linington
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