Roderick Lappin named president of Lenovo Asia Pacific

Lenovo has appointed Roderick Lappin as president of Lenovo’s Asia Pacific region. He will begin his role from April this year where he will be uniting the company’s Asia Pacific Emerging Markets (APEM) and Asia Pacific Mature Markets (APMM) businesses into a single unit.Lappin has been with Lenovo for the past eight years and has been based in Japan since 2008. He has been one of the key drivers of success across the current Lenovo APMM business, leading the company to become the PC sales leader in Japan and facilitating the successful launch of the consumer business in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).In his new role, Lappin intends to run the Asia Pacific business from Japan and remain the president of NEC Lenovo Japan Group. He will continue to lead the Japan and ANZ business and will report to Gianfranco Lanci, Lenovo’s chief operating officer and executive senior vice president.“Lappin has a wealth of experience in creating successful businesses in mature and emerging markets, making him the best person to head up the new Asia Pacific business for Lenovo,” said Lanci.“With Lappin at the helm, I am confident the business across Asia Pacific will continue to thrive and will experience a whole new level of success, just like NEC Lenovo Japan Group in Japan over the last three years under his strong leadership.”In a press statement, Lenovo said that the company is in the process of transforming its business “to maintain its successful trajectory as the number one PC vendor in the world.” As a result, the company decided to bring together the APEM and APMM regions and promote Lappin. Meanwhile Ken Wong, who leads APEM is also being promoted to vice president of strategy and planning.Lenovo also added in the same statement that the  consolidated Asia Pacific business will allow it to "have the scale and efficiency to operate more effectively in this highly competitive and dynamic market." Lenovo’s recent launch of smartphones and other consumer devices in the region showed the company is "poised to make Asia Pacific a growth engine in the enterprise and consumer technology market."“Asia Pacific presents Lenovo with a swathe of opportunities and is critical for our continued success as the global leader in PCs, and I’m excited to be taking over a new amalgamated team brimming with talented people, many of whom I have worked with personally,” Lappin said.“I have set my sights to not only continue Lenovo’s momentum in the PC market, but to elevate our positions in other key categories including mobile and other consumer computing devices across Asia Pacific. I know for certain that together, with my new team, we can make this happen.”