Gateway lures trio to extend European hold

Direct manufacturer Gateway has poached three senior managers to take up recently-created roles at the vendor in a bid to strengthen the organisation as it expands into Europe.

As part of the changes, Sam Sethi has been appointed as director of ecommerce at Gateway. He moved from Microstrategy, where he was a consultant, and was previously marketing manager at Netscape.

Jan Jensen left his post as director of international channel management at Siemens Nixdorf, to become director of the business-to-business arm at Gateway.

Steve Phillips joined Gateway as chief information officer, after departing from his previous role of MIS director at Diageo's Pillsbury European subsidiary.

In addition to the three external staff moving over to Gateway, the vendor has made an internal change by promoting Michael Maloney to director of the consumer division, but he will also continue in his previous role of director of marketing.

The appointments are the latest upheavals since Mike Swalwell was promoted from his role as Gateway UK managing director to vice president and managing director of Gateway EMEA last month. He joined the company from Paragon and was previously managing director of Dell. He also spent 18 years at Digital in senior positions.

Swalwell said: "We have grown from a small company to a significant corporate organisation in a very short time. These appointments give better focus on the channels through which we attract and retain clients. This move will allow us to extend our reach through multiple channels."