Acer 'restarts growth' with boss shuffle

New EMEA president and global chairman for struggling PC vendor

Acer has shuffled its top executives in a move designed to kick-start growth.

Luca Rossi has been appointed president for Acer EMEA as predecessor Oliver Ahrens shunts across to an identical role in the newly formed Pan-Asia Pacific regional operation.

The move follows a change at the top of Acer's global business, with co-founder George Huang having replaced Stan Shih as chairman of the business.

Shih, who started Acer in 1976 with Huang, retains the role of honorary chairman. He came out of retirement last November to retake the helm of Acer and lead a structural overhaul of the firm following a sustained period of falling sales and ugly losses.

"Today's announcement is about putting the best-qualified leaders into roles focused on restarting Acer's growth," Acer said.

"Acer is extremely fortunate to have a strong bench to draw on as it moves from a hardware vendor to an information, technology, communications company."

Rossi has been with Acer since 2009, during which time he has held several roles including regional director of Europe.

"Ahrens has left Rossi a great legacy to build on, and both have been working closely together over the past couple of years to establish Acer in the region and build a solid foundation for the future," Acer said.